It takes just one hour by regional train from Berlin’s main station to reach the small picturesque town of Bad Belzig in Brandenburg. Ideal for a day trip to the Berlin countryside.
The history of Belzig begins in 997, which is when it was first mentioned in a document. If you then look at the following years, you read about changing rulers and destroyed city areas. Sometimes through plundering, sometimes through acts of war, the inhabitants always had to rebuild the town.
The town’s history is particularly proud of the visit of Martin Luther in 1530, who preached in Belzig’s Marienkirche. The town is less proud of the National Socialist era, when Belzig was home to a forced labour camp for 1,500 men and women from Eastern Europe and a concentration camp branch of the Ravenbrück camp was established in 1943.
After the Second World War, Belzig was a district town in the GDR district of Potsdam from 1952. The town was home to the “Central School of the Society for Sport and Technology Etkar André”, where the GDR government trained employees of the Ministry for State Security for activities abroad in the West.
Belzig has been part of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district since 1993 and was recognised as a state climatic health resort in 1995. In 2002 a thermal brine bath opened and since 2009 Belzig has been recognised as a state spa. Belzig has been allowed to be called Bad Belzig since 2010.
Stroll through Bad Belzig
From the station, it is easy to walk to the village. It goes through small streets that were very quiet and empty, especially on a Sunday before 10 am. Even from a distance we could see the tower of Eisenhardt Castle, which we also wanted to visit a little later. First we passed the town hall of the town.
Bad Belzig town hall
In the 16th century, the town hall was built as an administrative building; it burned down in 1636 and was rebuilt in 1671. The curved gable in Renaissance style, which was added in 1912, is particularly beautiful. This was reconstructed after a fire in 1972.
There are some interesting information boards here, which gave us good hints for a short tour.
Marienkirche – Brandenburg Organ Museum
The town church of St. Mary stands to the north-east of the market square. It is not known exactly when the church was built. However, it is assumed that parts of the church already existed in the first half of the 13th century. Parts of the church burnt down several times and were rebuilt.
Today you can see a single-nave church in Bad Belzig made of regularly hewn fieldstones. A church tower stands on the western extension. At the foot of the tower there is a portal whose arch was re-framed in the 19th century. The keystone commemorates 14.1.1530, the day Martin Luther preached a sermon here.
I was very surprised when I entered the church. Here you step into a large, almost empty room. There is an altar on one side, a baptismal font – yes, and organs. This church houses the Brandenburg Organ Museum. There are 7 organs, a clavichord and a harmonium from 3 centuries spread throughout the church.
The largest and oldest organ is the Papenius organ. It dates from 1747, has 1102 pipes and 20 stops. It was originally located in the village church in Hordorf near Oschersleben. A table portative with 25 pipes is the smallest organ in the museum.
After leaving the church, we walked across the beautiful church square and read the information boards set up there about Luther and Bad Belzig.
Museum opening hours
May-September
Friday – Sunday: 11-18 h
Address:
Brandenburgisches Orgelmuseum
In den Marienkirche Bad Belzig
Am Kirchplatz
14806 Bad Belzig
Eisenhardt Castle
Our little walk through the town led us further in the direction of Eisenhardt Castle, which lies on the south-western edge of the town on a hill of the High Fläming. A well-signposted hiking trail leads here. A glance at the signs showed us that we definitely have to go there again with a little more time and hike the routes.
A kind of castle complex already stood on the ridge before the town of Belzig was founded. Initially built as a rampart, a massive Romanesque stone castle was later erected.
It must have been around 1305 when Duke Rudolf I began to expand the castle and the fortifications. He had the market settlement surrounded by a wall and in 1358 Belzig was granted town charter.
Around 1423, Eisenhardt Castle fell to the House of Wettin, who expanded the complex into a modern fortress at great expense. A gatehouse with a princely flat and defensive rondels were built.
Later, almost only the interior of the castle was rebuilt. The castle was used, for example, by the district administration office and during the Second World War the Reichsschule Technische Hilfe was housed there. In GDR times, Eisenhardt Castle housed a vocational school, a special school, a school kitchen, a youth hostel and a music school. In addition, a youth club, the registry office and the local history museum use the premises.
Today, Eisenhardt Castle houses the local history museum, a library and a hotel. In the castle courtyard you can sit comfortably under the shady trees and enjoy yourself.
First, our tour of the castle complex led us along the outer walls of the castle. You can already see here that the castle is built quite irregularly and that there are rondels on the corners. Some of the rondels can be visited and the thick walls with small chambers and embrasures, which helped to defend the castle, can be seen. In one roundel there is an eight-metre-deep cistern that served as a water supply.
You enter the gatehouse via a brick bridge. The entrance to the museum is in the entrance hall. If you walk east in the castle courtyard, you come to the former salt magazine. This 16th-century storehouse was used to store grain and salt and was built directly against the outer walls. In 1930, the building was converted for residential purposes.
From here you can then walk along the outer walls or sit under the trees and enjoy the area.
Saint Briccius Church
There is a small church right next to Eisenhardt Castle. Out of curiosity, we first walked through the church cemetery and then spontaneously took a look inside the church.
The Protestant St. Brictius Church is dedicated to St. Brictius of Tours and dates back to the 12th century. From the outside, the field and brick building looks rather inconspicuous. But when you step through the small door, you are visibly surprised. The ceiling and the gallery are painted with beautiful floral motifs. The pews in a shade of green, which is rather unusual for churches, match the design very well. To me, it simply seems inviting, which is certainly also due to the fact that everything is kept very simple.
Tip: In the back of the church there is a table with information material and water bottles to give thirsty hikers or cyclists new strength.
Postal Mile of Saxony (Kursächsische Postmeile)
After the short visit to the church, we are drawn back to the city. On the way to the station we passed the Kursächsische Postmeile.
By order of ∫Friedrich August I of Saxony, the land and border commissioner Zürner erected this column in the first half of the 18th century in the then still independent village of Sandberg. This was the exact location of a traffic junction and the routes were marked on the pillar.
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