Schwarzenberg Castle was based on a medieval fortification and together with St. George's Church dominates the scene of the large county town of Schwarzenberg in Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

's district of Erzgebirgskreis

Erzgebirgskreis

Erzgebirgskreis is a district in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is named after the Erzgebirge , a mountain range in the southern part of the district which forms part of the Germany–Czech Republic border...

.

Construction history

The castle was probably founded in the 12th century as a fort and was the original base for the settlement of Schwarzenberg and its vicinity. The former castle was given its present appearance by a conversion into a hunting lodge for the Electorate of Saxony

Electorate of Saxony

The Electorate of Saxony , sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356...

 from 1555 to 1558. In 1851/52 its keep

Keep

A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

 and south wing were raised and, in 1875/76, an office building extension was added.

Sources

• Georg Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler Sachsen: II. Regierungsbezirke Leipzig und Chemnitz. Deutscher Kunstverlag, München 1998, S. 908.
• Walter Fröbe: Herrschaft und Stadt Schwarzenberg bis zum 16. Jahrhundert, Schwarzenberg: Geschichtsverein, 1930/37.
• Hans Becher: Schloss Schwarzenberg: Baugeschichte, Ereignisse, Museum Erzgebirgisches Eisen und Zinn Schwarzenberg, 1984
• Götz Altmann: Damit es in alter Schönheit erstrahlt - Zur Rekonstruktion und Restaurierung des Schlosses Schwarzenberg. In: Erzgebirgische Heimatblätter 3/1980, S. 66-67,