Tom`s travels: Chemnitz & Augustusburg (16/11/2024)

After taking an early train from Berlin, I reached the state of Saxony and specifically the city of Chemnitz. After getting off the train, I headed towards the city center, reaching shortly after the Theaterplatz. This late 19th-century square was built following the city's expansion north of the old town walls and is surrounded by some of the main buildings, such as the neo-Gothic Petrikirche, the King Albert Museum, and the large Opera House. Continuing onward, I then reached the Karl Marx Monument, a more than 7m high stylized head of the famous philosopher. Between 1953 and 1990, Chemnitz was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt in recognition of its industrial heritage, and this monument, to honor the city's name, was unveiled in 1971. A little further on, I passed the Roter Turm, one of the few vestiges of the old city, built in the late 12th or early 13th century as part of the city wall. Entering the old town proper didn't seem different; in fact, the city had been heavily bombed during WW2, and what wasn't destroyed then was demolished to make way for the typical East German plattenbau buildings. After passing a large mall, I then reached the main square, refurbished with old buildings. Here stood the New and Old town halls, the former built around 1911, while the latter dates to the 15th century in a Renaissance style. A new town hall had been built right next to the old town over some old burgher houses due to the city's rapid growth, and the old one wasn't enough. Apart from most other modern buildings around the square's perimeter was also the nicely refurnished Siegerthaus, an 18th-century baroque burgher house. Behind the two town halls stands the church of St Jakobi, a Gothic hall church built over a previous Romanesque one. Its simple facade was remade in the 1910s in Jugendstil. After visiting the interior, I then headed to walk around the rest of the old town, which consisted mostly of modern buildings. Heading westwards I left the old town and started heading up a slightly hilly area, entering the Kaßberg, a neighborhood that sprung up following the city's growth in the latter part of the 19th century, It is known for being one of the largest Gründerzeit and Art Nouveau neighbourhoods in Germany, with beautiful houses and buildings from that time. I walked around admiring the nice architecture. At that point, I walked back to the city center and entered a large building, the 1913 Kulturkaufhaus DAStietz. Inside its foyer was the impressive Chemnitz petrified forest, a collection of tree trunks from the Early Permian. Finally, it was time to head back to the train station from where I took a regional train to the nearby town of Augustusburg. Once there, right across the street, I took the funicular railway, which brought me to the top of the hill where the town is located. I first passed by and entered the church of St Petri, a 19th-century neoclassical church with nice interior fittings. From there, I then walked through the tiny old town featuring nice timber-framed houses with gray shingle roofs typical of the surrounding Ore Mountains area. Next up, I approached the main site in town, the Jagdschloss Augustusburg, a Renaissance hunting lodge built from 1568 to 1572. Rather than just a hunting lodge, this impressive structure, built on top of a solitary hill surrounding the landscape, is rather a large palace castle built by Prince Elector Augustus to create a prestigious palace for his hunting trips as well as underlining his leading position in Central Germany. As I passed through the first outer gate, crossed the bridge over the moat, and entered the large main courtyard through the inner gate framed by a beautiful sandstone portal. Built in a geometric form, it features a square complex with thick towers at its corners and a large courtyard in the middle. I first admired the building from the outside as the sun had come out, despite being low in the sky, which allowed a nice view of the complex. I headed in the back through another gate to where some annex buildings, now a youth hostel, are located. From here, a small terraced area granted a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape. Then I headed to the main entrance and bought a ticket to visit the interior. Unfortunately, a visit to the castle church was only possible on a guided tour at a specific hour (as is typical with many castles in this part of Germany), so I had to skip it. However, I enjoyed visiting the main building, with some rooms featuring old decorations and wall paintings. There were a few exhibits on medieval furniture and objects, a section on natural history, and a large section on the history of motorcycles, one of the largest apparently, with many examples from the beginnings to the most recent period. Included in the ticket was the ascent of one of the castle towers, the northeastern one, on top of which I then had an even greater view of the landscape. Finally, after a visit to the cellars, which had a short exhibition on torture machines and methods, it was time to leave the complex. I walked through the old town and then down the hill alongside the funicular railway until I reached the train station, where, after a switch again in Chemnitz, I then took a ride back to Berlin.