Schlosshof, Schloss Wittenberg (Lutherstadt Wittenberg)

Rebuilt from 1489 and finished in 1525 as the residence of the Saxon electors, Wittenberg Castle lost its state rooms to fires in 1760 and 1814 and spent the nineteenth century as a Prussian citadel and barracks. What survived is the rectangular courtyard, and that is what the town uses: an open-air arena at Schlossplatz, closed on four sides, which takes the summer Wittenberger Hofkonzerte and other open-air programmes. The adjoining Schlosskirche is a UNESCO World Heritage site; the castle wings, restored between 2013 and 2018, hold a Reformation research library of some 220,000 volumes.