The small town of Waldenburg is located on the Zwickauer Mulde River. Here stands the beautiful Waldenburg Castle with its castle park.
If you drive through Waldenburg by car, you will pass Waldenburg Castle. You should take your time and stop at the large visitor parking lot, it is worth visiting the castle and the castle restaurant.

Waldenburg castle
In the 12th century, a castle on the western bank of the Mulde River protected the “Bohemian Trail”. The castle formed the center of a dominion that extended into the Ore Mountains.
Waldenburg Castle consisted of a three-part complex divided by two moats and additionally protected by a moat. In the middle section of the castle stood a square keep. The lower part of the keep has been preserved until today.

The owner of this castle complex was Hugo von Wartha, a judge in the royal Pleißenland. His descendants called themselves “von Waldenburg”. In 1378 the owners changed and Friedrich von Schönburg-Hassenstein took over the dominion and from then on called himself Lord of Glauchau and Waldenburg.
In 1430, during a siege by the Hussites, they destroyed the castle.
Waldenburg Castle is built
The destroyed castle and its outer castle were later rebuilt (1556-1565) as a castle complex. The “rear castle” and somewhat later the “front castle” were built in the Renaissance style. Several fires led to repeated changes in the construction of the castle.

Prince Otto Victor I von Schönburg modernized the castle complex from 1835. In 1847, he set up a natural history cabinet in the castle’s stables, which has been preserved to this day. You can read about our visit there in our article “Museum – Naturalienkabinett Waldenburg: dem Wunder der Natur auf der Spur”.
The prince’s reign at the beginning of industrialization was also marked by numerous industrial workers’ riots, which culminated in a revolution in 1848. In the course of this, the angry masses stormed the castle, looted and set fire to it. The flames raged fiercely and destroyed not only art objects, the library and the castle archives, but also the castle’s building fabric.
The prince and his family had fled in time and returned to Waldenburg in 1849. They quickly planned the new construction of the castle.

A closed four-winged complex with a crenellated oriel and an octagonal clock tower in the inner courtyard was built. The medieval keep was raised and a tent roof was added. Only a few years later, from 1909-1912, Prince Otto Victor II had much of the building rebuilt.
The rather unadorned building was redesigned in a representative manner and the interior of the castle was brought up to the latest technical standards. Thus, a modern heating system, hot water in the bathrooms, electric light, a central vacuum cleaner system and in-house telephones found their way into Waldenburg Castle. In addition, the family purchased works of art, historical furniture and Asian porcelain, and thus decorated the interiors magnificently.

A building was added to the east side of the palace, which was connected to the chancellor’s building and the keep. In 1928, the palace complex was restored and the princely family opened parts of the complex to the public as a palace museum.
What happened after 1945?
After the Second World War, the Red Army Command moved into Waldenburg Castle and many rooms were used as military hospitals during this time. Parts of the magnificent castle furnishings were taken away as looted art. The owner of the castle was expropriated in 1945 in the course of the land reform.
From 1948, the Social Insurance Institution of Saxony then used Waldenburg Castle as a sanatorium for TBC and later as a specialist hospital for lung diseases. Numerous reconstruction measures took place for this purpose, which greatly changed the interior of the castle. In 1998, the hospital moved out of the castle.

Since 2001, the castle has been owned by the Zwickau district and is being renovated step by step. Many areas are open to visitors and can be visited.
What can be discovered in Waldenburg Castle
During our visit to Waldenburg Castle, an event was taking place and so we were only able to take a brief look at the rooms in the upper area of the castle. We planned to explore this area in peace at a later time. Already the staircase that leads to the splendidly furnished rooms promises a lot.

We first viewed the permanent exhibitions in the basement of the castle and then took part in a guided tour up and into the keep.
Permanent exhibition Filmschloss Waldenburg
A castle, of course, represents a beautiful film set. No wonder that filmmakers like to choose this place. Here you will find historically furnished rooms, partly unused rooms and an English park landscape.

Since November 2010, Waldenburg Castle has been listed in the Location Guide of the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM). So far, about 20 film and television productions have been on location and shot a few scenes in this beautiful ambience.
In the basement of the castle there is an exhibition that deals with the topic “Film location Waldenburg Castle”. Here you can discover photos and memories of the time with the film crews and with some film I was still amazed and would not have recognized the castle in the film.

It all began in 2000, when the castle was used as a backdrop for the crime scene “Quartett in Leipzig” with Peter Sodann, Bernd Michael Lade, Klaus J. Behrendt and Dietmar Bär. Several documentaries and documentaries on a wide variety of topics followed.
In 2013, scenes of the film “The Grand Budapest Hotel” were shot at the Waldenburg. You can learn about this filming in the exhibition.
In 2015 followed the film “The young Karl Marx” with August Diehl, Stefan Konarske, Vicky Krieps.
But Waldenburg Castle was also used for fairy tale films, such as “The Clever Farmer’s Daughter” and in commercials, as in the Duracell Christmas commercial.
Exhibition Building History Waldenburg Castle
Not only the film history of Waldenburg Castle is interesting, but also the building history is presented in a small exhibition. This is located in the basement of the castle, in the rooms formerly used by the servants. From the construction of the first castle complex in the late 12th century to the reconstruction measures at the beginning of the 20th century, one can follow the development in an animated presentation. I especially liked the architectural drawings, where you can see many small details.
Exhibition “Historic Castle Kitchen”
Ever taken a look inside a castle kitchen? Waldenburg Castle originally had 6 rooms that were used for the many different tasks of a kitchen. Each room had a specific task, such as space for serving food, work surfaces for preparation or fireplaces. Today, three rooms are still preserved and can be visited.

A little tip: activate the listening station when you enter the room! You can immediately listen to a scene in the kitchen and experience the hustle and bustle. This makes it even more fun to look at the historic kitchen.
Guided tour of the keep
The tour up and into the keep begins in the Waldenburg Castle Chapel.
In the course of the new castle construction, the very bright and quite unadorned, but nevertheless impressive chapel was also built. The chapel received an organ, which used the entire rear third of the prayer room. Unfortunately, it was scrapped in the post-war turmoil around 1946.

In the period when the castle was used as a pulmonary sanatorium, the chapel was divided into two floors by a false ceiling. Today you can still see some places where this ceiling was anchored. The lower part was used as an X-ray department and the upper rooms were used as a dining room for the staff.
In 2009 the castle chapel received a new organ with about 1542 pipes, partly assembled from materials of other organs.
From the chapel the path continued to the keep of the castle.
Only the lower part, which is about 14 meters high, of the present building has existed since the Middle Ages. This is clad with the typical humped ashlars used in construction during the Staufer period. Even today, these are still visible in the lower part of the tower.

The upper part of the tower is more recent. Around 1690, the tower was given an octagonal upper storey and a high spire, reaching a height of 40 meters. The great castle fire of 1848 also caused considerable damage to the keep. However, it could be rebuilt. In the course of the reconstruction, the new chancery building was added to the keep.
The keep of Waldenburg Castle has a side length of 9.80 meters at ground level and a wall thickness of about 3.50 meters, which protrude about 7 meters into the earth. The higher you get, the more the wall thickness decreases. The original entrance, it is believed, was not at ground level, but was above a dungeon located in the lower area.

A complicated lock system, where you have to use big and small keys in a certain order to be able to open the door, protected the entrance to the tower at that time. After the door opened, we could enter the keep. At ground level, the castle café uses the building today. In the past, there was a disbursement office and an archive here.
We start with the tower ascent, which we interrupt quite often, because there is something to discover on every floor. The use of the keep over the years has surprised me quite a bit. On two floors there are now unused apartments. From 1945 to 2002, the space was used and apartments of different sizes were built in, which had water supply but no toilet. This was located in the corridor for all tenants. Today the rooms are empty and slowly the ravages of time gnaw at the walls and windows, it smells slightly damp. It is a pity, but it would be very expensive to build new modern apartments, for example for vacation guests.

As we step through a door, we find ourselves in a vault. The outer walls here are still 3.50 meters thick and thick steel doors protect the entrance.

The path to the top of the keep takes us up a total of 138 steps up a staircase that becomes narrower and narrower. There are other mezzanines, all of which have been used in different ways in the past and are now empty. Finally at the top, you can enter a narrow balcony that leads around the tower. From there you have a great view of the surrounding area with its fields and rolling hills, you can see areas of the castle and castle park from above.



I can highly recommend a guided tour of the keep at Waldenburg Castle. It was informative, fun and surprising. The view compensates for every step up the stairs.
Adress:
Peniger Straße 10
08396 Waldenburg
Opening hours:
Monday: closed
Tuesday – Friday: 10- 16 h
Saturday: 13- 17 h
Sunday and holidays: 11-17 h
Due to wedding ceremonies, celebrations and events, it may happen that the castle can only be visited to a limited extent.
Admission fees:
Castle tour
Adults: 8,-€
Castle tour incl. permanent exhibitions and special exhibition
Adults: 13,-€
Guided tours are offered on various topics for a fee.
The visit to Waldenburg Castle was part of a research trip to the Zwickau region. The article was written independently of the visit
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