Zerbst is a town of Germany, in the Land of Saxony-Anhalt, district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld. It was, until the administrative reform of 2007, the chief town of the district of Anhalt-Zerbst, and counts 16.000 inhabitants.

Zerbst is mentioned in the texts since the year 949. It was the old residence of the princes d' Anhalt-Zerbst, and it is there that Catherine II was high, born princess of Anhalt-Zerbst.

It is as in Zerbst as the type-setter baroque Johann Friedrich Fasch in 1758 died.

The castle of Zerbst

The castle, Residenzschloss Zerbst , is mentioned for the first time in 1196, and was surrounded by an enclosure in 1430 following a fire.

The fortress left ruined Guerre Thirty Years and its rebuilding was decided. The prince Charles Guillaume d' Anhalt-Zerbst engaged for this purpose the Dutch architect Cornelis Ryckwaert (1652-1693), and the first stone of the new castle was posed in 1681. The project of Ryckwaert envisaged a U-shaped plan, with a main building principal, and two wings of return, in the east and the west.

In reasons of financial problems, work spread out in the time, led by various project superintendents:

• of 1681 with 1693: Cornelis Ryckwaert ;
• of 1694 with 1708: Italian Giovanni Simonetti (1652-1716), who built in 1704 the Western wing, in which the vault was, and the building sheltering the administration of Finances;
• of 1722 with 1743: Johann Christoph Schütze (1687-1765), which drew the tower of the central main building, as well as buildings in the park;
• of 1744 with 1748: Johann Friedrich Friedel (1722-1793), which completed the Western wing;
• of 1746 with 1749: Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt (1709-1769), which completed interior decoration.

After the extinction of the branch of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1796, the principality returned to the branch of the princes of Anhalt-Dessau. Those déintéressèrent castle: the gardens baroques were replaced in 1798 by gardens with English, and a school was installed in the castle in 1806. During the Napoleonean Wars, the castle was used of hospital and district-general.

The Court of Anhalt used the castle until the middle of the 19th century: in 1848, it became the residence of prince Georges Bernard d' Anhalt-Dessau. A fire destroyed the upper part of the tower of the castle in 1881, and was restored in 1884.

In 1918, the duke of Anhalt abdicated, and the castle became a museum in 1920.

The April 16th 1945, 85% of the town of Zerbst was destroyed by a bombardment of Anglo-American aviation, and the castle did not escape the devastations. The central main building and the Western wing were a little later shaven but the ruins of the Eastern wing were preserved, such as one can always see them nowadays.

An local association currently restores it.

External bonds

• Site in German devoted to the castle of Zerbst

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