Schloss Colditz
Good for: WWII history, Spending a night at a castle, Base to explore Saxony
- Address
- Schlossgasse 1
- Website
- Phone
- 034381-437 77
- Price
- museum €3, tour adult/concession €7/4
- Hours
- museum 10am-5pm Apr-Oct, tours 10.30am, 1pm & 3pm (confirm)
Lonely Planet review for Schloss Colditz
High on a crag above the sleepy town of Colditz, some 46km southeast of Leipzig, is the imposing Schloss Colditz, a Renaissance palace that's seen stints as a hunting lodge, a poorhouse and a mental hospital. Mostly, though, it's famous as Oflag IVC, a WWII-era high-security prison for Allied officers, including a nephew of Winston Churchill. Most astounding, perhaps, is a 44m-long tunnel below the chapel that French officers dug in 1941-42, before the Germans caught them. You can see some of these contraptions, along with lots of photographs, in the small but fascinating Fluchtmuseum (Escape Museum) within the palace. Several inmates wrote down their experiences later, of which Pat Reid's The Colditz Story is the best-known account.

