The pastel-colored Delitzsch Castle appears fairytale-like in the midst of the cityscape.
Among the oldest castles in northwest Saxony, the building served as a travel residence for Saxon rulers and as the seat of the ruler's administration.
Starting in 1860, the structure was used as a women's prison for a number of years, while today the baroque castle houses the city museum, tourist information office, sound safe, registry office, and district music school.
Barockschloss Delitzsch History
In 1389 William I of Meissen had a medieval moated castle built, the tower of which has been preserved to this day. Delitzsch Castle served as an itinerant residence for Saxon rulers and was the seat of the ruler's administrative offices.
From 1540 the castle was renovated in the Renaissance style. During the Thirty Years' War, the building fell into partial ruin, but was still used as an official residence.
After the division of the Saxon lands in 1657, Delitzsch passed to the secondary principality of Saxony-Merseburg. Duke Christian I of Saxony-Merseburg chose the baroque palace of Delitzsch as his travel residence and widow's seat and had it enlarged and renovated beginning in 1689. The result was a Baroque palace modeled on the French style, which still impresses today with its interior design.
After the extinction of this Saxon collateral line in 1738, the castle housed a tax and pension office. In 1860 a women's prison was established, which remained in operation until 1926. The museum moved in 1929.
Today the baroque Delitzsch Palace is a cultural institution and a protected architectural monument. The building houses the Delitzsch Baroque Castle Museum, the city's tourist information center, the registry office, the district music school, and the castle cellar, which is used as a safe.
Highlights of the museum exhibit are the reconstructed ducal chambers, which take visitors back to the Baroque era.
The Baroque garden to the west of Delitzsch Castle, though tiny, enchants with its beauty. Created in 1692 according to the plans of princely court gardener Andreas Gotthart Carl and at the insistence of the widowed Duchess Christiane of Saxe-Merseburg, who lived here, it reflected the latest fashion for "French-style" gardens.