Schloss Scharfenberg has a panoramic view over the Elbe valley. It has a long-established link to many artists as a Romantic subject.
Some records link the castle to Henry the Fowler and dates it from 938 AD. However there is no evidence to support this claim. The original castle dates from around 1200. of which some of the western boundary walls and entrance gate remain. Archaeological digs found a circular keep to the west, dating from 1220. The castle is first mentioned in 1227 in a church document in Meissen and it is in the control of the Bishop of Meissen.
In 1390 it is controlled by Bernhard von Maltitz and in 1403 Dietrich von Miltitz. The castle remained in the ownership and control of the Von Miltitz family until the Second World War. During this time the castle was badly damaged in the Thirty Years War. As a result large sections of the inner castle date from the late 17th century.
The castle was again besieged and successfully defended against the Swedish army in 1706 during the Great Nordic War.
In 1783 an accidental fire destroyed the timber built north side of the courtyard. The timber-built south side survives.
In the early 19th century, during the period of the Grand Tour, Scharfenberg became an established Romantic destination, and the architecture was altered to enhance this Romantic image. During this period the Von Miltitz family were great patrons of artists and several famous artists were commissioned to paint the castle. These included Ernst Ferdinand Oehme, Christian Gottfried Körner , Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué , Johann August Apel, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Thomas Fearnley, Johan Christian Clausen Dahl and Caspar David Friedrich.
For various reasons the castle fell empty during the Second World War. It was occupied by various persons displaced by the war in a hostel fashion and was under state control under the Soviet regime. This continued into the 1950s. Although the castle is relatively large it is far from any city and is not a good area to house workers.
In the 1960s it opened as a museum, but was generally only of local interest in relation to its neighbouring cities. It still had a residential function and an artist community linked itself to the building, also keen to preserve the castle. These included Achim Freyer, Emil Nolde, Achim Heym, Andreas Reinhardt, Karl-Heinz-Schäfer and Otto Walchau.
Through the 1970s and 1980s it was used for civil defence purposes, partly due to its strategic views over the River Elbe.
At the reunification of Germany in 1989 all state functions ceased. It was sold privately. Today it is a hotel.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.