Ortenburg, Bautzen

Ortenburg Castle is located in the old town of Bautzen on a rocky plateau above the Spree River. For centuries it was the ancestral castle of the Sorbian Milzeners, later the main stronghold of Upper Lusatia in the possession of the respective sovereigns.

From the 12th to the 17th century Ortenburg Castle was the seat of the bailiffs of Upper Lusatia, who ruled the margraviate of Upper Lusatia as deputies of the sovereign. This belonged to the lands of the Bohemian crown until it passed to Electoral Saxony in 1635. From the end of the 17th to the 19th century, the castle was the seat of the Electoral Saxon High Office. Today Ortenburg Castle is the seat of the Saxon High Administrative Court.

The most prominent building of the castle complex is the late Gothic Matthias Tower. In front of the gates of the fortress, the castle lehn adjoined in the eastern direction. Originally, the noblemen who belonged to the castle garrison lived in this settlement. The Burglehn was outside of the Bautzen city law. The houses or plots of land there were granted as fiefs by the sovereign.