Burg Friedland: A Medieval Castle Complex in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crusader, Holy Roman Empire, Knights Hospitaller, Margraviate of Brandenburg
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page13 sections
History
Burg Friedland is a castle complex in Friedland, Germany, with origins in the thirteenth century. Located in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg, it is regarded as one of the best-preserved castles in the region. Friedland was first mentioned on 3 August 1301, when a document referred to the castle and town as castrum et oppidum Vredeburch, meaning “castle and town of Friedeberg.” Alleged references from 1235 have not been substantiated, while the first documentary mention of Burg Friedland itself dates from 1336.
From medieval lordship to the Order of Saint John
In 1307, the town and castle probably belonged to Timo von Strele, a member of the noble Strele family associated with the region. In 1518, Veit von Thümen, master of the Order of Saint John, acquired Friedland, the castle, and fourteen associated villages. The Order of Saint John, also known as the Knights Hospitaller or Johanniter Order, was a religious and military institution that later controlled extensive estates and administrative possessions. Its Brandenburg branch was headed by a Herrenmeister, or master of the order.
A major town fire destroyed the castle down to its foundations in 1623. The enclosing walls, approximately two metres thick, and the barrel vaults of the cellars survived. In 1630, Count Adam von Schwarzenberg, then master of the order, had the castle tower rebuilt to three storeys. Swedish troops commanded by Colonel Wittkopf occupied Friedland and the castle from 1643 to 1650 during the Thirty Years’ War, the wider European conflict of 1618 to 1648 involving religious, dynastic, and territorial struggles.
Rebuilding and changing administration
The castle acquired its present overall appearance in 1658, when a plastered half-timbered building was erected between the two residential towers for use as offices by clerks. A new drawbridge was built in 1758, but by 1767 the surrounding ramparts had been removed and a solid causeway to the castle gate had replaced the earlier approach.
After the Order of Saint John was secularized in 1866, the Kingdom of Saxony administered Burg Friedland. The town purchased the castle and its estates for 15,000 marks in 1875 and has remained the owner. The rooms were soon remodelled as classrooms, schoolmaster’s rooms, and apartments for the mayor and teachers. Between 1910 and 1913, work renewed the roof, replastered the buildings, restored and secured the outer wall and towers, rebuilt the inner wall, and repaired the main entrance gate.
Twentieth-century uses and preservation
From 1934 to 1942, Burg Friedland housed a troop-leaders’ school of the Reich Labour Service, a state labour organization in Nazi Germany that also operated paramilitary training institutions. Its interiors were extensively remodelled in 1935. During the Second World War, the Reich Foreign Ministry temporarily stored documents in the castle.
After the Red Army liberated Friedland on 26 April 1945, the castle became a grain store. Five apartments were created in the central section in 1946 for displaced people from the former German eastern territories, while teaching resumed in the rear residential tower. A machine-and-tractor station operated in the courtyard until the end of the 1950s. In 1963, the cellars became a school kitchen, and the Knights’ Hall and an adjoining room were used for practical instruction. Friedland Central Library opened in the castle on 12 November 1975, and the Knights’ Hall became a concert room in 1979. A pharmacy moved into renovated rooms in the service building in April 1986.
Extensive preservation and restoration took place from 1996 to 1999. Burg Friedland is a protected architectural monument. Together with the castles at Beeskow and Storkow, it forms part of the Strele Castles network, which promotes cultural activities in the Oder-Spree district. Since summer 2005, the three castles have hosted alternating summer-theatre productions. A tourist association founded in 2004 maintains an information centre in the castle, whose rooms are also used for changing thematic exhibitions.
The White Woman legend
A local legend tells of the beautiful daughter of a former lord of Friedland who became a “White Woman” haunting the castle. The story says that her father cursed her after she rejected the knights who sought her hand, while he had long been unable to find an heir. She disappeared shortly before his death and was thereafter said to wander along the castle walls on nights with a full moon. The legend warns men not to address, curse, throw anything at, strike, or look at the apparition, which is said to leap onto a victim’s back and strangle him.
Remains
Burg Friedland stands on a raised island-like site known as a Kaupe in the lowland landscape. The town and castle were enclosed by a wall and rampart, while the Dammmühlenfließ was impounded until 1866, leaving the surrounding meadows covered by water. The surviving complex includes the outer and inner walls, towers, gatehouse, access causeway, vaulted cellars, residential buildings, and the half-timbered structure added in 1658.
Defensive enclosure and entrance
Outer enclosure
The outer enclosure, or zwinger, formed a defensive space between the castle’s principal fortifications and its exterior boundary. Small rounded defensive structures, known as rondels, occupy its corners, while a small rectangular bastion projects from the western side. A bastion is a projecting fortification designed to strengthen defensive fire. Only part of the western ring wall survives, whereas the eastern side remains almost complete in the form created by the rebuilding of 1658.
Gatehouse and causeway
The southern side contains the gatehouse and the solid access causeway that leads to it. The entrance was approached from the town side and was originally protected by a drawbridge. Three Gothic window openings that widen outward are set into the southern wall. An adjoining service or carriage building, known as a remise, now contains a restaurant.
Residential and interior buildings
Residential tower and main building
The eastern residential tower is three storeys high and forms part of the section that retains the appearance established in 1658. The main castle building preserves richly carved supporting beams. One beam carries an inscription naming Adam, Count of Schwarzenberg, as master of the Order of Saint John in 1630. The 1658 building between the residential towers is plastered and half-timbered, meaning that its visible timber framework is filled with another material such as masonry or plaster.
Knights’ Hall
The Knights’ Hall occupies the north-eastern part of the castle. It is a cellar-like room with a low vault and heraldic paintings on the ceiling. The room later served for practical instruction and was converted into a concert room in 1979, retaining its place within the historic castle fabric.
Walls and cellars
The enclosing walls are approximately two metres thick, and the cellars retain their barrel vaults. These elements survived the fire of 1623 and remain among the substantial historic fabric of the complex. The preserved walls, towers, gatehouse, causeway, cellars, inner and outer enclosures, and 1658 half-timbered building together express the castle’s successive medieval, early modern, and later civic phases.
