Alte Burg Penzlin: A Medieval Castle and Museum in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Alte Burg Penzlin is a medieval castle in Penzlin, Germany, probably built by German settlers around 1220. It developed as a secondary residence of the Princes of Werle, medieval rulers whose principality included parts of Mecklenburg, and later became the ancestral seat of the von Maltzahn family.
Frontier origins and noble residence
During the twelfth century, the Penzlin region lay along a frontier between Slavic communities and German settlers. A frontier installation known as the Iron Gate stood in this contested setting. German settlement followed around 1220, when the castle was probably established. From 1501, Alte Burg Penzlin belonged to the history of the von Maltzahn, a German noble family, as their ancestral seat.
Decline and changing ownership
The Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict fought from 1618 to 1648, brought warfare and economic disruption across German territories. Alte Burg Penzlin gradually fell into ruin as a consequence, and by the eighteenth century it had become uninhabitable. In 1810, the von Maltzahn family built a new residence, Neue Burg, above the old castle.
The barons von Massenbach sold Alte Burg to the city of Penzlin in 1941. The city then used the castle for residential purposes and as a museum. Extensive renovation began in 1990, after German reunification, and the castle now serves as a museum.
Museum and historical interpretation
The museum explores everyday magic with a Mecklenburg emphasis and examines early-modern witch persecutions. Its historical focus includes the Penzlin witch trial of Benigna Schultzen, whose inquisitorial and review proceedings lasted twelve years, from 1699 to 1711. An annual medieval castle festival in Penzlin is supported by a historically oriented knightly association whose activities draw on the lives of medieval knights in the Penzlin region.
Remains
Alte Burg Penzlin survives as a substantial castle complex in the town of Penzlin, southwest of Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Interior museum rooms occupy part of the complex, while the courtyard contains a herb garden planted with species traditionally believed to possess magical powers. Exhibits throughout the castle address magic and witch persecution.
Cellar dungeon
A cellar contains an early-modern “witch” dungeon described as Europe’s only example of its kind. Its arrangement exactly conformed to the rules of the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches, a late-medieval treatise that influenced European ideas and judicial practices concerning witchcraft. The dungeon remains largely preserved in that condition, giving the cellar a direct connection to the museum’s focus on witch persecutions.
Cellar wildlife
The cellar also shelters a colony of bats belonging to several species. The animals remain hidden in the darkness and are protected as part of species conservation.
Nearby sites
