Germany · 12th century
Colditz Castle (or Schloss Colditz in German) is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. The castle is between the towns of Hartha and Grimma on a hill spur over the river Zwickauer Mulde, a tributary of the River Elbe. It had the first wildlife park in Germany when, during 1523, the castle park was converted into one of the largest menageries in Europe.
The castle gained international fame as the site of Oflag IV-C, a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II for "incorrigible" Allied officers who had repeatedly attempted to escape from other camps.
Text adapted from “Colditz Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Colditz Castle ranks #281 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #29 of the 711 mapped in Germany. Founded c. 1150, it is older than 80% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 756 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 23,436 times in the last 60 days, more than 98% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Dresden, 66 km away. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
View on the interactive castle map →