Sleeping Beauty's Castle Christmas, Torgau (DE)

Christmas market at Hartenfels Castle: The setting of the DEFA fairytale film "Sleeping Beauty", filmed at Hartenfels Castle in 1971, provides the perfect backdrop for a themed Christmas market.

Free admission

Fortified Hartenfels Castle

The Renaissance Hartenfels Palace is an impressive testimony to the early German Renaissance and the only one of its kind to have been completely preserved to this day. The splendour of this era is palpable as soon as you enter the magnificent castle courtyard. An architectural masterpiece is the Grand Wendelstein, a self-supporting staircase that leads upwards without a central pillar - a pioneering achievement by master builder Konrad Krebs. The palace was once one of the most modern residential palaces in Saxony and was the venue for glittering festivals, state diets and weddings. Under Elector Johann Friedrich, it also developed into an important centre for the cultivation of music. After the Saxon electors moved their seat of government to Dresden, the use of the palace changed - it later served as barracks, among other things.