Ortenburg

The Ortenburg stands on a rocky spur twenty metres above the eastern bank of the Spree in Bautzen. First recorded in 1405 as ‘castrum Orthenburg in Budissin’, its name comes from the medieval word for a forward position. The river crossings nearby channelled east–west routes between southern ridges and northern marshy heaths, giving the site strategic value. From Bronze Age earthworks to a Slavic stronghold, the hill was fortified long before written records. After King Heinrich I subdued the Milzener around 919–936, a ring wall was begun and finished under his son Otto I. By the year 1000 the Ortenburg had become the political centre of the Milzener March. Later it housed the Landvogt who ruled the Upper Lusatia for the Bohemian crown until 1635. The late-Gothic Matthiasturm dominates the complex, its three wings rebuilt in 1483–86 by Matthias Corvinus’s landvogt Georg von Stein. Inside, the Stucksaal’s ceiling is regarded as unique in Saxon culture. Outside the old fortress gate lies the Burglehn, once home to the noble garrison and still marked by houses granted as royal fiefs. Today the Ortenburg shelters the Saxon Higher Administrative Court and the Sorbian Museum.