Hartenfels Castle
A Spirit of Reform Beneath the Spiral Staircase

In Torgau - the spiritual center of the German Reformation - Hartenfels Castle is the most significant building of the townscape. It's here, that Renaissance, Reformation and modern times meet in a most unique way. The  »Torgau Museum Route« leads up to the castle and the Castle Church, the first Protestant church to be built in Europe, which was personally consecrated by Luther. 

Town, castle and Reformation, however, is interconnected by even more than that: here, the »Torgau Articles« laid the foundation for the Augsburg Confession, the first Protestant songbook was published and - last but not least - the Protestant rulers signed the »Torgau League of Princes«. The Large Spiral Staircase - also called »impossible staircase« – dominates the castle courtyard, which today is the central place where cultural events are held in Torgau. In the north-west, the castle area is closed in by a typical Renaissance rose garden with box hedges, pavilions and a water basin. At the place of the former medieval tournament ditch, there is a steep terrace complex now.

Today, the »Traces of Injustice« exhibition at Hartenfels Castle recounts the history of Torgau as the headquarters of the Wehrmacht penal system in National Socialism, as a Soviet special internment camp and a GDR penal institution.