Altdöbern (

Lower Sorbian Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also *Nizhny Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́� ...

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

Oberspreewald-Lausitz Oberspreewald-Lausitz ( dsb, Wokrejs Górne Błota-Łužyca, hsb, Wokrjes Hornje Błóta-Łužica) is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the southern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Dahme-Spreewald, Spree- ...

district, in southern

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Geography

Altdöbern lies in

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

, 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 of extracting rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a Borrow pit, b ...

lignite 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. History From 1815 to 1945, Bronkow was part of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg. From 1952 to 1990, it was part of the Bezirk Cottbus of East ...

, Luckaitztal, Neupetershain (Nowe Wiki) and Neu-Seeland together form the collective municipality Amt Altdöbern.

Culture and architecture

The baroque 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 ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

style, but later replaced by a new building in baroque architecture including

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

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 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 by the ...

and the large ''Salzteich'' lake. The

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

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 largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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 ...

( B 96) to the south and

Calau Calau (, dsb, Kalawa) is a small town in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in southern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 14 km south of Lübbenau, and 27 km west of Cottbus. Calau is also called the home of the Kalauer. Geo ...

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 and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

and

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

(via

Senftenberg Senftenberg ( wen, Zły Komorow) is a town in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany, capital of the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district. Geography Senftenberg is located in the southwest of the historic Lower Lusatia region at the border with Saxony. It ...

History

From 1815 to 1945, Altdöbern was part of the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...

. From 1952 to 1990, it was part of the

Bezirk Cottbus Cottbus was a district () of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The administrative seat and main town was Cottbus. History The district was established, along with the other 13, on 25 July 1952, ''de facto'' replacing the East German ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

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