Dölitz Castle

The Dölitz Gatehouse is the structural remnant of a noble residence in the village of Dölitz, which is now part of Leipzig. Large parts of Dölitz Castle and with it the gatehouse were built in the last third of the 17th century.

The Dölitz manor was owned by the Leipzig merchant family von Winckler for almost 300 years.

The castle was acquired, renovated, and rebuilt in 1636 by Georg Winckler (1582–1654), a merchant in Leipzig and the progenitor of the family. He was ennobled in 1650 by Emperor Ferdinand III. The family had extensive possessions in the area, including villages and manors. Later, through Johann Benedict Winckler, they are said to have been elevated to the rank of Barons von Schwendendorf.

The castle's gatehouse was built between 1670 and 1672 by Andreas von Winckler, a son of Georg Winckler. Architecturally, it marks the transition from Saxon Late Renaissance to Saxon Early Baroque. The castle itself was a three-story, four-wing complex with an inner courtyard, topped by an octagonal roof turret with a Baroque cupola. The gatehouse was located on an island formed by two arms of the Pleißemühlgraben. Today, only the eastern moat remains. The entrance is reached from the east via a wooden bridge.

During the Battle of Leipzig, the gatehouse was fiercely contested. Austrian troops repeatedly tried to storm the complex but were repelled by the French until they retreated unhindered on the night of October 18-19, 1813. The gatehouse is the last remaining building that played an important role in the Battle of Leipzig.

The Dölitz manor was acquired by the city of Leipzig in 1929. In World War II, the castle was severely damaged in an air raid in 1944. Therefore, the main building was blown up and demolished in 1947. The still-preserved manor barn fell victim to a fire in 1953. It was located directly next to the gatehouse, which could be saved from the fire. In the 1950s, the building was still inhabited but increasingly fell into disrepair. In 1959, the Institute for Monument Preservation of the GDR began restoring the building. Traces of the Battle of Leipzig, such as cannonballs, disappeared under the newly applied exterior plaster. However, a part has been visible again since a renewed renovation in the 1990s.