Moritzburg Castle near Dresden is a beautiful and fairytale-like hunting and baroque castle that is well worth a visit. On the walk inside the castle, you get a "histopad", which helps to bring history to life!
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Moritzburg Castle
Moritzburg Castle was the hunting paradise of the Saxon Electors. Today, the castle is open to the public, and you can also stroll through the castle park.
Moritzburg Castle is located about 15 kilometres north of the city of Dresden, in the federal state of Saxony in eastern Germany.
Visiting Moritzburg Castle
We drove to the Moritzburg castle with our motorhome, and parked in the large car park right in front of the castle. Then we just walked in and paid the entrance fee. The price includes a so-called "histopad" (a digital disc), which turned out to help bring history to life in a really entertaining way.
Moritzburg Castle - a hunting lodge for the Saxon Electors
Moritzburg Castle was built in the 16th century as a Renaissance hunting lodge for Elector Moritz of Saxony. It was later converted into a Baroque castle by Elector August the Strong (1670-1733), and a little later Elector Frederick August III of Saxony (1750-1827) added a pleasure palace and pheasantries.
The hunting lodge was a place where the Saxon Electors enjoyed themselves royally. They hunted on the vast hunting grounds and organised grand balls and games in the form of 'sea battles'.
The castle was inhabited by the noble House of Wettin, to which the Saxon princes belonged, until 1945, when they were forced to give up the castle. Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony and his sons tried to hide art treasures in the garden, but most of it was found by Soviet troops. Only a few boxes of jewellery and gold ornaments were found by amateur archaeologists in 1996.
Today the castle is a stable museum, with one of Europe's largest collections of horns and animal skulls.
Tour of Moritzburg Castle - with history trail
Time for a tour of the castle! But what is a "histopad"? Well, this is a digital disc that we could hang around our necks. In each room there is a place where you can scan the plate, and suddenly you get information about the room, or optional objects that you point to.
The most fascinating thing is that you can then move the plate around the room and see how the place might have looked a few hundred years ago, when the room was full of people. Suddenly the rooms and furniture come to life!
Many of the rooms are themselves incredibly beautiful, with stuccoes, paintings and decorative furniture. Perhaps one of the most impressive rooms is the 'feather room', with a canopy made from lots of tiny bird feathers.
And then you pick up the histopad and see what it might have looked like at the time, say in 1728. You move the pad around the room and everywhere you go you see new people, in fantastic clothes. Fascinating!
In one room, a large table is set for a party, with beautiful Meissen china.
But what might it have looked like at the party? Well, you'll find out when you lift the histopad and point it at the table.
Moritzburg Castle also has a castle chapel, built in 1661 under the supervision of Elector John George II. Even today, regular church services are held in the chapel.
If you continue upstairs, you will find an exhibition of various artefacts. However, you cannot use the histopath here.
When we got back to the motorhome, each of us had an email with a photo of us in the mailbox as electoral princes ... Who looks best in the outfit ...?
Where can you stay overnight with your campervan?
Right next to the Moritzburg castle there is a car park where you can park your camper overnight. There is an electricity pole here, but it was not working when we were here, and since we needed electricity we did not stay here.
Instead, we spent a few days at the most central car park in Dresden (Stellplatz Wiesentorstrasse). Here there is electricity for about 15 motorhomes and you have a perfect starting point for visiting the old town of Dresden.
More to see and do in the neighbourhood
Moritzburg Castle is located just outside Dresden, which is a great city to discover. In Dresden, you can visit the beautiful Zwinger Palace and all the museums in the Residence Palace. If you want to experience dramatic nature, take a trip to Bastei, with the famous Bastei Bridge. Right next to Bastei you will also find the impressive fortress Festung Königstein.
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Have you visited Moritzburg Castle?
Have you visited Moritzburg Castle? Or perhaps you've visited another attraction where a 'histopad' is used?
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Solan says:
Histopad, a novelty for me.
We have visited a number of castles in Germany and have sometimes been disappointed. Not furnished in a contemporary way. Without furniture, I lose interest. But with the histopad, the salons become lively again...
👍Good tips Freedom!
19 July 2022 - 7:44
Helena says:
Histopad was new to us too! We really liked it! Completely agree with you, castles can be very different to visit. You want to get a sense of how it may have been once upon a time 🙂 .
20 July 2022 - 7:47
4000mil says:
It sounds really cool with the histopad. I don't know how many times I have stood in an old environment and wished I could look into the past. What it was like, what people looked like, etc.
19 July 2022 - 10:12
Helena says:
Right? It was a fun thing and it worked smoothly! Really delicious actually!
20 July 2022 - 7:48
BP says:
The histopath was completely new to me. A really fun thing! The location of the castle is fantastic and the header car is outstanding. The interior with horns and animal skulls and a four-poster bed with feathers - no thanks. I wouldn't want to eat or sleep there;-)
Peter is probably the best dressed with the wig.
19 July 2022 - 18:50
Helena says:
Yes, new technology can be really fun sometimes, when it works well! Funny that you like the first picture! And haha, I liked looking at the rooms, but I don't know if I would want to live like that right away either 😉
20 July 2022 - 7:49
Lena - gott för själen says:
But how cool was that toad, then? I can imagine that it was very lively. Andreas has relatives in Dresden and we have talked about going there soon. I will put that castle on my wish list!
Hugs Lena
14 October 2022 - 12:40