Belzig

Belzig lies beneath the fortress of Eisenhardt on a height in the Fläming. The castle belonged to the Ascanians and, from 1298, guarded the northern frontier of the dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg and their electoral successors. It served as a court and toll station as well as a defence against neighbouring Magdeburg and Brandenburg. In 1406 Archbishop Günther of Magdeburg stormed and destroyed the castle and town; the Saxon rulers rebuilt the fortress. Belzig was devastated again during the Thirty Years' War in 1636 and passed to Prussia in 1815.