Hubertusburg

From 1699 Augustus the Strong and his governor Prince Anton Egon of Fürstenberg held festive parforce hunts here, while their large entourage and the royal guests had to be accommodated in the village and at nearby Mutzschen Castle.

During the feast of Saint Hubertus on 3 November 1721, Augustus the Strong commissioned a new palace that should serve as a hunting lodge but also reflect the royal claims of the Saxon elector, who since 1697 ruled as King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in personal union.

The palace, then one of the largest Baroque castles in Europe, was erected according to plans drawn up by the court architect Johann Christoph von Naumann.

The three-story structure now formed a rectangle, with the main façade including an oval two-story avant-corps and bearing the coat of arms of Augustus III as imperial vicar.

After his defeat at the 1760 Battle of Landeshut, the forces of King Frederick the Great devastated Dresden, while Berlin and nearby Charlottenburg Palace was occupied and plundered by united Austrian, and Russian and Saxon troops.

In 1770 Frederick Augustus III had a faience manufacture established in the premises, which obtained much attention at the Leipzig Trade Fair and later produced stoneware with considerable success.

However, business went down during the Napoleonic Continental Blockade, while Hubertusburg served as a military hospital for the Saxon troopers of the Grande Armée, returning from the French invasion of Russia, and for the wounded of the Battle of Leipzig.

Handed over to the Soviet Red Army on 5 May, the premises were again plundered and several remaining hospital patients deported to NKVD Special Camp Mühlberg.