Burg Eisenhardt

Burg Eisenhardt stands on the Bricciusberg hill in the wooded heights of the Fläming range, overlooking the town of Bad Belzig. The irregular seven-sided curtain wall rises from the slope, its corners marked by rounded bastions built to mount guns. A deep cistern in the north-east bastion once supplied the garrison with water. The 28-metre round keep, begun in the early 13th century, still dominates the courtyard and serves as an observation tower. The fortress took shape under the Wettin electors in the late 15th century when Arnold von Westfalen designed the new bastions and the grand ducal apartments in the gatehouse. After Swedish cannon fire in 1636, the buildings were rebuilt in the 1680s and the gatehouse received a Baroque façade. Later uses included a regional court, a district office, a school and a youth hostel, while today the site houses a local museum and a small hotel. Visitors walk through the restored gate passage with its saddled roof and corbelled arch bearing the Saxon coat of arms. On the east side the former salt magazine, now a private dwelling, shows its stepped gables and mixed round and segmental windows. Behind the keep lie the remains of a 13th-century chapel and the foundations of the great hall, while the courtyard well and two plastered ranges recall the daily life of the garrison. Beyond the walls the pine woods stretch away toward the church of St Briccius.