Tom`s travels: Doberlug-Kirchhain & Finsterwalde (12/02/2022)

On another weekend we decided to do a day trip south of Berlin to the far southern reaches of the state of Brandenburg. We took a regional train and reached the town of Doberlug-Kirchhain as our first stop. The town, as the name might suggest, is actually formed up of two separate small towns, both of which with an old town and are just a few minutes walk from each other. The train station was located right in between the two and once there we decided to visit Kirchhain first. We headed north along the main street connecting the town towns and reached the city center shortly after. Here we walked through the main square, where the nice late Renaissance town hall from around 1682 is located which was expanded and refurbished after 1850. As we reached the northern end of the old town we headed on to visit the church of St Mary, originally from the 13th century and featuring a late Gothic brick basilica with a painted wooden barrel vault and a late Romanesque brick tower with two separate steples. The interior included an altarpiece from 1743. a pulpit from the 18th century and a nice large organ from 1921. After visiting the church we then headed back out and walked around the rest of the town. Then from there, we decided to head back the way we came and continue on to reach the nearby town of Doberlug. It was really nice as the sun was out and shining and the weather and temperature felt really good. Once in Doberlug, we walked along the main street, the Hauptstrasse, which cuts the town in half from east to west, and is sided by the nice and typical low countryside houses. At the end of it on the western edge of the old town, we then reached the Schloss Doberlug. The castle's origins date back to a 12th-century monastery, later transformed into a castle and residence in 1551, with additions till the end of the 17th century, in the Saxon Renaissance style which can be observed today. We decided to visit it by purchasing a ticket which included the permanent exhibitions on part of the ground and first floors. The descriptions were all in German but it was still enjoyable enough to observe some old objects and artifacts related to the castle and the town and surrounding area. Right next to the castle, after the visit to the museum, we then toured the beautiful Doberlug Monastery, a former Cistercian abbey from the 12th and 13th centuries. Of the once large monastery complex, only some of the buildings have survived, including the church and refectory while the cloister and other service buildings have completely disappeared. We tried visiting the church but unfortunately found it closed. Nonetheless, we admired it from the outside, particularly in its nice brick form which comes from a restoration that took place during the 20th century. The building is now considered the oldest surviving Cistercian sacred building in eastern Germany and one of the most important brick buildings in inner northern Germany. After the tour around the complex, it was time to head back through the town and to the train station from where we then took the next train to the small nearby town of Finsterwalde. Once there we walked through the city center, reaching the central square, the Markt, with its 18th-century baroque town hall. Right behind it was the Trinitatiskirche, an originally medieval church reconverted into a Renaissance one at the end of the 16th century. The church was closed so we continued on, reaching the southern end of town where the Schloss Finsterwalde was located. Built as a defensive build during the middle ages it was turned into a renaissance castle between the 15th and 17th centuries. It consists of a small inner courtyard in the back which still features a beautiful loggia that reminded me a lot of the castle in Krakow and a larger courtyard to the north of it. In the 19th century, the front part of the castle was the site of two cloth factories, while the rear castle served as a residential building for the families of the manufacturers. The front castle has been the seat of the Finsterwalder city administration since 1885 with the addition of the back part from 1919 onwards. From there we then walked back through town admiring the rest of the nice city center, before eventually turning back to the station and taking our train back to Berlin.