Sonnewalde Castle (Ruin)

Sonnewalde was first mentioned in 1255 in a deed of sale between Johannes von Sunnenwalde and Dobrilugk Abbey. However, the town, as a Wendish swamp castle, similar to the Slavic castle Raddusch, is likely much older, and German settlement and expansion into a Burgwardium certainly took place long before its first mention. The origin of the von Sunnenwalde family can no longer be clarified. However, they sold the Lordship of Sunnenwalde between 1318 and 1328 to the de Ileburg family. In 1481, Court Marshal Hans von Minckwitz acquired Sonnewalde for 28,000 guilders from the Saxon Duke Albrecht, who thereby provoked the Kingdom of Bohemia, which considered Lusatia and thus Sonnewalde to belong to the Kingdom of Bohemia. On March 21, 1537, Sonnewalde was sold for 40,000 guilders to Count Philipp von Solms-Lich, thus establishing the line of the Counts of Solms-Sonnenwalde, who held the county in Sonnewalde until 1945.

Between 1470 and 1477, the castle was rebuilt. In the 16th and 17th centuries, its owners had it renovated several times. In 1945, the Counts of Solms-Sonnenwalde were dispossessed, and two years later, the upper floor of the castle burned out and was demolished. The town of Sonnewalde, which had owned it since the land reform, had the remains renovated in 1991.