Renaissance-Schloß Leitzkau

Gommern, Germany, Germany

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Renaissance-Schloß Leitzkau in Gommern, Germany, originated in the 1140s as a Premonstratensian monastery called Sancta Maria in Monte, with its impressive Romanesque basilica church consecrated in 1155 by Archbishop Wichmann in the presence of Albrecht the Bear.

Secularized after the Reformation, it was purchased in 1564 by mercenary leader Hilmar von Münchhausen, who with his son Statius rebuilt the complex between 1564 and 1600 into a prime example of Weserrenaissance style featuring a three-story Neuhaus wing, triumphal loggia with Romanesque columns, octagonal tower, and converted single-nave Baroque chapel. 

Remaining the von Münchhausen family seat until 1945, it later served as refugee housing and a school before Saxony-Anhalt's Foundation of Castles and Gardens took over in 1996 for restoration and a permanent exhibit on its history.