Gommern Castle

Gommern Water Castle is a moated castle in the town of Gommern in Saxony-Anhalt.

On an artificially created hill, a Slavic ring fort already existed in the 10th century. To secure the German conquest, a new castle complex, consisting of an outer bailey and a core castle, with ramparts and double moats, was built in its place starting in 948. The still existing, free-standing keep was given three-meter-thick walls. It is about 40 meters high and has a diameter of ten meters. In 1578, the Saxon Elector August had large parts of the castle demolished and commissioned the master builder Paul Buchner with its conversion into a hunting lodge. Quartzite quarry stones from the nearby quarries and material from the dismantled Plötzky Monastery were used. A spiral staircase was installed in the keep, and it was given a Welsche Haube (Welsh cap/Baroque dome).

From 1853, the castle was used as a correctional facility for one hundred years, then as a social home, and from 1969 to 1989 for vocational training.

In 1990, it was privatized and converted into a hotel and restaurant business with its own brewery, which, however, was abandoned after ten years. After a temporary closure of the castle and subsequent forced auctions, the restaurant and brewery reopened in December 2008. The hotel's reopening followed in February 2009.