Old Castle Pulsnitz

The town of Pulsnitz, elevated to city status in 1375 by Charles IV, has been known as the "City of Gingerbread" since the 17th century. But it's not just gingerbread that has made Pulsnitz - located between Kamenz and Radeberg, north of the A 4 - famous.

At the beginning of the 13th century, Pulsnitz belonged to the Rode lordship of the noble family of Bernhardus de Polsnitz. His wife was Margarethe, daughter of Burgrave Otto von Dohna. In her possession, as a dower, was the old Pulsnitz moated castle, which presumably already existed around 1200. After its demolition in the 16th century, only remnants of the medieval castle walls remained. The Lords of Pulsnitz died out in the 14th century, and so King John of Bohemia enfeoffed Burgrave Hermann von Golßen with the castle in 1344. The knight's seat that developed from it was in the hands of numerous notable noble families.

These included the brothers Eustachius I, Hans Balthasar, and Caspar von Schlieben. The Old Castle, the so-called Eustachiusbau, a two-story Renaissance building on the site of the castle, built on an obtuse-angled floor plan, dates back to Eustachius von Schlieben. However, it was Hans Wolf von Schönberg, who acquired the lordship in 1580, who completed the building. Above the niche portal is his coat of arms and that of his wife Ursula von Carlowitz. The mansard hip roof dates from the 18th century.

A peculiarity of the castle was its division, which took place in 1640 under the brothers Hans Georg and Wolf Georg von Schönberg. But Wolf von Werthern, who acquired the front castle in 1652 and the rear castle in 1656, was able to quickly eliminate this state and reunite both parts into a whole.

After the Old Castle was no longer sufficient as a representative building, the Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Chamber Junker Johann George von Maxen, who inherited Pulsnitz in 1707, erected the New Castle. The New Castle is an elongated, two-story Baroque building from 1718.

In 1745, the property fell to the von Gersdorf family, who later bequeathed it to the von Posern family. This family expanded the park in the English style around 1860 and carried out some alterations to the castle in 1904. Finally, the noble family was dispossessed in 1945 during the land reform.

The relocation of a sanatorium from Schwepnitz to Pulsnitz in 1948 established its continued existence as a hospital. Today, a modern clinic for neurological rehabilitation is located in the castle buildings.

Worth seeing, especially during the rhododendron bloom, is the castle park, laid out around 1720 in French and English styles, with its pergola and gondola pond.