Plötzkau Castle

A 37-metre-high tower and no fewer than 21 striking gables give Plötzkau Castle its unmistakeable silhouette. Not far from Alsleben, it rises above the Lower Saale Valley nature park, visible from afar. Entering the courtyard, you feel almost as if you are standing on the market square of a little Renaissance town, with later baroque elements dotted here and there. Nonetheless, the castle’s mediaeval beginnings, from the times of the Counts of Plötzkau, can be found in many places, especially the vaulted cellars and basements.

In the 16th century, Bernhard VII, Prince of Anhalt, had a residential castle built in the style of his epoch on the old site, which was by then in a state of considerable disrepair. Of the more than 70 rooms, the most impressive is the Fürstensaal hall, featuring a huge sandstone fireplace with a magnificent top section and the ornate stuccoed ceiling, and a heavily protected “secret chamber”.

After this era as a princely residence, the castle was put to an almost matchless plethora of purposes. Among other things, it served as a mint, a factory for Japanese lacquer and tobacco, a prison, an agricultural estate, a refugee shelter and a museum storage facility. Various permanent exhibitions in the tower museum tell this incredible tale and much more.