Schloss Weistropp

Schloss Weistropp is a three-winged manor house in Weistropp, a village in the Klipphausen municipality of Saxony’s Meißen district. The 17th-century building stands on the northern edge of the village, separated from the houses by a small wood. A church lies close to the south wing, while a former knight’s lodge marks the western boundary of the open courtyard. The house has changed owners many times and each period left its mark. In 1601 Heinrich von Eckersberg built the first castle, then Albrecht von Güntherode added the south and north wings in 1661–62. Adolph von Seifertitz enlarged the structure in 1723 and connected it to the church gallery. The Russian general Gottlob Curt Heinrich von Tottleben married into the family in 1745, and later the estate passed to the Austrian consul Jacob von Krause, who filled it with art. In 1838 the exiled Duke of Lucca, Karl II, bought the house and lived there after abdicating in 1849. Today the restored building holds nineteen flats, most with three or four rooms. The former knight’s lodge next door has also been converted into apartments. Visitors walk past the church and the wooded strip that once shielded the manor from the village. The classical façade and the long gallery to the church gallery remain visible reminders of the house’s layered past.