Castle Belgershain

Schloss Belgershain stands in the village of Belgershain, south-east of Leipzig in Saxony. It began as a medieval moated fortress built in the 11th or 12th century to guard the Via Regia Lusatiae Superioris trade route. The first owner was Margrave Wiprecht of Groitzsch after 1104. By 1330 it belonged to Heinrich von Trebsen, later passing to the Burggrafen of Leisnig and the von Pflugk family. In 1551 it became a knight’s estate and was gradually converted into a residential palace, completed around 1600. The interior took shape in the 17th century with a spiral staircase and a hall behind it featuring cross vaults. Some door surrounds of porphyry still show Renaissance shapes. In 1792 the von Uechteritz family bought the building and remodelled it in the early 19th century in the neo-Gothic style. New owners followed, including Friedrich von Zehmen in 1833 and his son Hanns in 1852. From 1852 the Schönburg-Waldenburg family held the estate until 1945. Today the castle serves as the village’s cultural centre. A 17th-century manor house outside the moat now houses a school and kindergarten. Beside the castle stands a baroque Cavalier’s House from about 1730, once linked to the palace by an archway and now the local town hall. Its upper floor contains a small museum of the village and castle’s history.