Ballenstedt

Ballenstedt lies at the northern edge of the Harz and was an early seat of the Ascanian family. Count Esico founded a collegiate church here in the eleventh century; his descendants Otto the Rich and Albert the Bear established a Benedictine monastery on the site in 1123. Albert, who became the first ruler of Brandenburg, was buried in the abbey church.

During the Peasants' War the abbey was plundered, and Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt secularised it in 1525. He made Ballenstedt a residence and granted it town privileges in 1543. Imperial troops under Wallenstein plundered the town in 1626. Later the princes of Anhalt-Bernburg rebuilt the former monastery as a Baroque residence; Frederick Albert moved his court here in 1765 and established a theatre in 1788.