Schloss Baruth
Right in the heart of Baruth, a small town just south of Berlin, sits a Schloss whose former glory is slowly fading away. Boarded up windows, shattered glass and unresolved property rights - Schloss Baruth 's future looks fairly bleak. Things, however, started out a lot more glamorous back in the day... The oldest part of the castle complex commonly called Schloss Baruth or Neues (New) Schloss Baruth dates back to the 18th century and actually started out as a garden house. Already since the late 16th century, the Lordship of Baruth had been held by one of the many branches of the extensive Solms family who originally came from Hesse. As you probably already guessed, when there is a 'new castle', there must be an 'old castle'. Located just a stone's throw away, the Altes Schloss Baruth , which you can see in the last two pictures of this post, was built starting in 1671 on the basis of an even older medieval castle. The fairly smallish Altes Schl...