Annaburg Castle

Electress Anna of Saxony and her Castle

Electress Anna, wife of August I of Saxony and namesake of the town of Annaburg, resided in the newly built Lochau Castle (later Annaburg), operated a distillery, and engaged in the production of medicine, fruit and herb cultivation, aquavit production, and culinary arts. Annaburg Castle housed the first Saxon court pharmacy. From 1762 to 1821, the buildings were used as a military school. The buildings of the dining hall (1886), the prayer hall (1886), and the staff building (1876) of the then military boys' institute also date from this period.

Current Use

A large part of the castle complex is now occupied by apartments. In addition, the Annaburg Castle and Homeland Festival takes place on the castle grounds every June.

Museum

The current museum in the rear castle provides information about the development of the castle, its construction and usage history with the important figures for Annaburg: Frederick the Wise, Elector August I of Saxony, and Electress Anna of Denmark, its use as a military boys' educational institute from 1762 to 1921, and the electoral hunt in the Lochau or Annaburg Heath. Another focus is the significance of the well-preserved flader ceiling, one of Europe's first "wallpapers," which was uncovered in 1987 by the Association for Local History and Monument Preservation.

The castle complex is divided into two stylistically completely independent structures, namely the front castle (Vorderschloss) and the rear castle (Hinterschloss), as well as other ancillary buildings designed for their respective uses.

Front Castle

The front castle consists of a three-winged complex of plastered brick buildings with high mansard hip roofs and round-arched gates. The buildings were significantly altered between 1780 and 1786. In the west wing, there is a three-story, two-axis central risalit with a gate entrance and an octagonal tower with a dome and lantern. In front of the entrance are two heavy polygonal pillars. Three semicircular projecting towers are located on the outside of the wing facing the market, and a round tower at the northwest corner. Renovation work at the end of the 18th century was carried out by the master builders von Schindler and von Langen, as well as court master carpenter Christian Gottlob Reuß, and altered the originally much simpler parts of the building.

Rear Castle

The three-winged complex with a connecting gallery building consists of a kitchen house in the southeast, the gatehouse in the northwest, and the Great House in the northeast. The construction in these forms is characteristic of the castle buildings under Elector August of Saxony. In the courtyard of the three-story complex, there is a stair tower with a rider's staircase from 1585. On the opposite side of the courtyard is a covered passage, designed as a two-story loggia. On the upper floor of the kitchen house are wooden beam ceilings with fladering. The former court parlor on the ground floor of the Great House is equipped with Tuscan columns and ceiling fladering. A formerly existing chapel in the Great House was destroyed during renovation work in 1874. Lucas Cranach the Younger, Hans Schroer, and Caspar Perzsch, among others, were involved in the furnishing of the buildings.

Ancillary Buildings

The following buildings are considered part of the castle:

• The former barracks, a castle-like Neo-Renaissance building from 1880/1881
• The Old Lazaret was built in 1780 by von Schindler and is a late Baroque plastered half-timbered building with a solid ground floor.
• The former hunter's house, later the Tiergarten head forester's office
• The former stud farm
• The former administrative building was erected after a fire of the previous building in 1578 for the administration of the Electoral Saxon Annaburg district, which had existed since 1429.