Groß Rietz Castle is one of the most important rural aristocratic residences in Brandenburg. This, like most of Brandenburg's other baroque castles, was built during the reign of the Prussian King Frederick II. This early building, which is rare for Brandenburg, is one of the outstanding buildings in the Brandenburg cultural landscape. The original ensemble of castle, park, farm buildings, churches and cemetery is still visible. The castle was built between 1693 and 1700 for Hans Georg von der Marwitz, court marshal of Frederick I, and may have been designed by the architect Cornelius Ryckwaert. His grandson sold the baroque castle to the Prussian state minister Johann Christoph von Wöllner. As an advisor to King Wilhelm II, he exerted great influence and was the author of the religious edict of 1788. In Groß Rietz he devoted himself to the economic and ecological development of agriculture. In 1861, the estate and castle returned to the possession of the von der Marwitz family, where it remained until its expropriation in 1945.
Today the palace is owned by the Brandenburg Palace Society and is rented to a private resident. The palace can only be viewed from the outside. The associated baroque palace garden was probably completed in 1702. Garden planning and the original appearance are unknown. Carl Wilhelm von der Marwitz (1737−1811) had the garden redesigned. Only the base of the Minerva statue erected in 1778 remains. The entrance to the park is lined with two slender sandstone obelisks richly decorated with floral motifs. Between them is a wrought iron gate that was installed around 1880.
After the district administrator Peter Ludwig Friedrich von Itzenplitz (1769-1834) took over the estate, an extensive landscape was created after 1819, which, following the ideal of the ornamented farm, also included the agricultural surroundings and the farm buildings in the design. In gardening plans from 1819, 1825 and 1828, park designs can be seen that allow views over the surrounding landscape, the adjacent village and the farm buildings.
Year of construction: 1702
Directions: Car: A12 exit Fürstenwalde/Ost, continue on B168 to Groß Rietz
