Mildenstein Castle

Leisnig, Germany, Germany

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Mildenstein Castle sits on a rocky spur above the Freiberger Mulde River at the edge of Leisnig in Saxony, Germany, likely built in the 10th century as an imperial Burgward fortress, first documented in 1046 when Emperor Heinrich III gifted it to Agnes of Poitou.

It passed through hands like Wiprecht of Groitzsch in 1084 and Emperor Barbarossa in 1158, who elevated it to imperial status as a Pleißenland administrative center under Leisnig Burgraves, featuring a Romanesque chapel from around 1100, late 12th-century bergfried towers, and late 14th-century rebuilds by Margrave Wilhelm I.

Damaged in the Thirty Years' War and later used as a residence by anti-king Stanisław Leszczyński in 1706, court, prison, and officials' quarters, it became a museum in 1890 amid a Romantic park with artificial ruins added by the Mirus family from 1798.