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Burg Dohna – history
On the Schlossberg in Dohna on the Müglitz, between Pirna and the eastern Ore Mountains, stood one of the oldest castles in the Elbe valley – the ancestral seat of the Burgraves of Dohna. Today only a small fragment of wall survives; the round tower dates from 1830.
The Burgraves
The castle goes back to a Slavic fortification and first appears in the records in 1040. A Burgrave of Dohna is documented from 1156; the family ruled for some 250 years, answered directly to the Emperor and guarded an old trade road to Bohemia. Schloss Weesenstein also belonged to their burgraviate.
The Dohna Feud
The feud, which lasted from 1385 to 1402, is said to have begun at a noble dance in Dresden town hall: Burgrave Jeschke of Dohna slapped the face of a Herr von Körbitz, who had tripped him up. The deeper cause is thought to have been an attack by the Burgraves on Polish merchants. Margrave William I of Meissen besieged Dohna and captured the castle on 19 June 1402; Jeschke fled via Weesenstein and Königstein and was later executed in Ofen, today's Budapest.
Links to other places
Through the feud the Burgraves lost their entire lordship to the Wettins – Weesenstein, Kuckuckstein and the castle of Königstein were all caught up in it. In 1406 the Margrave handed Weesenstein over to the von Bünau family. Dohna itself became part of the district of Pirna; the castle fell into ruin, and the townspeople carted off its stones as building material.
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