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Home > Travel Germany > Germany Destinations > Colditz (Saxony)
Colditz (Saxony)
Germany or the Federal Republic of Germany is located in Central Europe with Berlin as its capital city. The German language was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe. It is a member state of the United Nations, NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G8, Group of 8, and the G4, Group of 4, nations, and is a founding member of the European Union. It is the European Union's most populous and most economically powerful member state. Germany is one of the largest European economies and the third largest economy in the world in real terms.
Colditz is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, near Dresden, located on the banks of the river Mulde. The city had a population of 5,188 in 2005. The city is most famous because of Colditz Castle, which has been used as a workhouse, mental health institution, a prisoner-of-war camp camp during World War I and as Oflag IV-C in World War II.
In 1046, Henry III of the Holy Roman Empire gave the burgher of Colditz permission to build the first documented settlement at the site. In the middle Ages, the castle was used as a watchtower for the German Emperors and therefore was the center of the Reich territories of the Pleibenland anti-Meiben Pleibe-lands. In 1506, reconstruction began after a fire destroyed it and new buildings were raised around the rear castle courtyard. The castle was reconstructed in a fashion that corresponded to the way it was divided up, the cellar, the royal house and the banquet hall building.
In the 19th century, the church space was rebuilt in the neo-classic architectural style, but its condition was allowed to deteriorate. The castle was used by Frederick Augustus III, Elector of Saxony as a workhouse to feed the poor, the ill, and persons under arrest. For nearly a hundred years, between 1829 and 1924, Colditz was a sanitarium, generally reserved for the wealthy and the nobility of Germany. The Gesellschaft Schloss Colditz e.V., the Castle Colditz historical society, founded in 1996, has its offices in a portion of the administration building in the front castle court.
Tourism in Germany has expanded since the end of World War II, and many tourists visit Germany to experience a sense of European history. The countryside exhibits a pastoral aura, while its cities exhibit both a modern and classical feel.
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