Altdöbern (

Lower Sorbian Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is sit ...

''Stara Darbnja'') is a municipality in the

Oberspreewald-Lausitz Oberspreewald-Lausitz (, ) is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the southern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Dahme-Spreewald, Spree-Neiße, the districts Bautzen and Meissen in Saxony, and the district ...

district, in southern

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Geography

Altdöbern lies in

Lower Lusatia Lower Lusatia (; ; ; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the south, Lower Lusa ...

, but is not part of its sorbian inhabited area. The flat landscape is dominated by large forests and new lakes created from the remainings of former

opencast Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ro ...

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

mines since the 1990s. One of these is 880 ha (2200 acre) large ''Altdöberner See'', east of the town. Its flooding is planned to be finished in the 2020s. The municipality of Altdöbern also contains the settlements Pritzen, Peitzendorf and Chransdorf and the villages Ranzow and Reddern. The municipalities of Altdöbern,

Bronkow Bronkow (, ) is a municipality in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in southern Brandenburg, Germany. Geography Bronkow is one of the five municipalities in the Amt of Altdöbern. The municipality includes the districts (German: ) of Lipten ( ...

Luckaitztal Luckaitztal (Lower Sorbian ''Lukajca Dolk'') is a municipality in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany. History From 1815 to 1947, the constituent localities of Luckaitztal (Buchwäldchen, Muckwar, Gosda and S ...

, Neupetershain (Nowe Wiki) and

Neu-Seeland Neu-Seeland () is a municipality in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany. History From 1815 to 1947, the constituent localities of Neu-Seeland (Bahnsdorf, Lindchen, Lubochow and Ressen) were part of the Prus ...

together form the collective municipality

Amt Altdöbern Amt Altdöbern is an ''Amt'' ("collective municipality") in the district of Oberspreewald-Lausitz, in Brandenburg, Germany. Its seat is in Altdöbern. The ''Amt'' Altdöbern consists of the following municipalities: #Altdöbern # Bronkow # Lucka ...

Culture and architecture

The

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

castle of Altdöbern (''Schloss Altdöbern'') with its surrounding park (''Schlosspark'') is just northwest of the central market square (''Markt''). The first castle was built in the 16th century in

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style, but later replaced by a new building in

architecture including

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

elements. Intense restorations are still in progress, but the interior of the castle can be visited during special events such as the annual park festival (''Parksommerträume''). The landscape park also contains a small

French garden The French formal garden, also called the , is a style of "landscape" garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century ...

and the large ''Salzteich'' lake. The

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

church at the market square was built only in 1918–1921, after the medieval predecessor burned in 1914. Other Protestant churches exist in ''Pritzen'' and ''Reddern''. A minor

catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church exists at the ''Waldstraße'' in Altdöbern. File:Altdöbern Eingangstor Schloss.jpg, Portal to castle and park File:Altdöbern Schloss Rückseite.jpg, Rear view of Altdöbern Castle File:Orangerie schlosspark-altdöbern.JPG, The former orangerie today hosts a café File:Blick vom Kirchturm am Marktplatz in Altdöbern.jpg, Houses at the market square and the lake in the background File:Altdoebern church.jpg, Protestant church

Transport

Via the state road L 53 Altdöbern is connected with

Großräschen Großräschen ( Sorbian: ''Rań'') is a town in Lower Lusatia, in Germany. Administratively, it is part of the district of Oberspreewald-Lausitz, in the state of Brandenburg. Geographical position Großräschen is south of the ''Niederlausitzer L ...

( B 96) to the south and

Calau Calau (, , ) is a small town in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in southern Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. It is situated 14 km south of Lübbenau, and 27 km west of Cottbus. Calau is also called the home of the German humour#Commo ...

to the north. Next Autobahn junctions are ''Freienhufen'' and ''Bronkow'' at A 13 (Berlin–Dresden) and ''Cottbus-West'' at A 15 (Berlin–Forst). Railway stop ''Haltepunkt Altdöbern'' gives regional connections to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Cottbus Cottbus () or (;) is a university city and the second-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after the state capital, Potsdam. With around 100,000 inhabitants, Cottbus is the most populous city in Lusatia. Cottbus lies in the Sorbian ...

and

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

(via

Senftenberg Senftenberg ( German, ) or (Lower Sorbian, ) is a town in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, in eastern Germany, capital of the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district. Geography Senftenberg is located in the southwest of the historic Lower Lusatia region at t ...

History

From 1815 to 1945, Altdöbern was part of the

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg () was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1947. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg (excluding Altmark) and ...

. From 1952 to 1990, it was part of the

Bezirk Cottbus Cottbus was a Administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic, district () of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The administrative seat and main town was Cottbus. History The district was established, along with the othe ...

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

Demography

References

External links

Official site of the municipality of Altdöbern
(German)
Official site of the collective municipality ''Amt Altdöbern''
(German)
''Altdöbern Castle'' at Castles of Brandenburg Administration
(English) Populated places in Oberspreewald-Lausitz {{Brandenburg-geo-stub