Schloss Seerhausen, Historic water castle in Stauchitz, Germany

Schloss Seerhausen was a castle in Stauchitz whose oldest element was a tower with three-metre-thick walls, likely a defensive tower. Additions over time formed a square building around an open courtyard. In the 19th century Rudolf Heinrich Burnitz rebuilt it, moving the tower from the east side to the south-east end, adding a mansard roof and filling in the moat and the southern Spiegelgraben. The castle was blown up on 23 March 1949; today only the Schlosshügel and park remain.

Seerhausen is first recorded in 1170 as Reinhardus de Serusne; a defensive castle is thought to have guarded the Jahna crossing after Henry I's victory at Gana. From 1221 the castle and knightly estate stayed with the von Schleinitz family until 1728, when Thomas Freiherr von Fritsch bought them; his great-grandson had Rudolf Heinrich Burnitz rebuild the castle. Plundered in 1946 and stripped, it was blown up on 23 March 1949.

The park was laid out by Christoph Dietrich Bose the Younger, as a 1696 plan shows, and Thomas Freiherr von Fritsch had it redesigned in Baroque style after buying the estate in 1729. Balthasar Permoser's sculpture "Chronos", commissioned by Bose, is now in the Palais im Großen Garten in Dresden. The Förderverein Seerhausen and the municipality of Stauchitz maintain the Schlosshügel and park.

The site is open for visitors and maintained through a partnership between a local support organization and the municipality. Expect varied ground conditions as you explore the buildings and grounds.

The castle's two tower bells were cast in 1556 by Wolfgang Hilliger in Freiberg and in 1754 by Johann Gottfried Weinhold in Dresden; a new clock by M. Bassler of Lommatzsch replaced them in 1874. The tower itself was rebuilt at the southeast corner during the 19th-century conversion by Rudolf Heinrich Burnitz.