Grimnitz Castle

The Grimnitz castle ruin, located on a sandy elevation in the Grimnitz district of Joachimsthal, was a Romanesque border castle of the Ascanians towards Uckermark. Later, it became the first of several locations for the Grimnitz glassworks. Today, a vaulted cellar, surrounding wall foundations, and outer grounds of the castle remain.

The exact age of the hilltop castle has not yet been determined. The first known documentary mention of the castle occurred in 1297. However, historians agree that the castle already existed under the jointly ruling Ascanian margraves Johann I and Otto III of Brandenburg and served them as a hunting lodge in the Schorfheide. Strategically, the castle secured the road running between Werbellinsee and Grimnitzsee towards Uckermark and Pomerania. With the division of inheritance between Johann I and Otto III, Grimnitz Castle came to the Johannine line as part of the territorial division and became the preferred hunting lodge of Otto IV. His successors up to Waldemar the Great also regularly stayed in Grimnitz. After that, it became temporarily quiet, and the castle complex fell into disrepair from 1340. Only in 1514, under Elector Joachim I, was the castle complex restored and subsequently modernized by the master builder Caspar Theiss. In 1529, the inheritance treaty between Brandenburg and Pomerania was signed at Grimnitz. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was severely damaged and partially destroyed. In the 18th century, it was finally abandoned to decay. In 1860, it was acquired for demolition by a building material dealer. His heirs gifted the castle ruin to German Emperor Wilhelm I in 1885.

The establishment of the glassworks in Grimnitz took place under Elector Johann Georg by his personal physician and court alchemist Leonhard Thurneysser between 1571 and 1584. The seat of the Grimnitz glassworks was initially moved several times within Joachimsthal and then moved via Althüttendorf to Neugrimnitz, north of Althüttendorf.

Today, the castle is owned by the Grimnitz Glassworks Association.