Already in the early Middle Ages, a fortified residence occupied the site where Hartenfels Palace rises up on the banks of the Elbe in present-day Torgau.

A mighty porphyritic rock right on the water’s edge provided an ideal setting. Craftsmen and merchants populated the gentle slope of the northwest side of the palace rock, forming settlements that would eventually evolve into the city of Torgau.

Torgau reached its prime in the first half of the sixteenth century when the Ernestine electors developed Torgau into their major residency and transformed the old citadel into a Renaissance palace. It was also in this period that many of the proud burgher’s homes were built, the interiors being furnished with vaults and splendid ceiling paintings, many of which have survived to this very day.

As the residency of Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, Torgau became the political centre of the Reformation. Luther preached regularly in the palace chapel, and it was in Torgau that the famous Augsburg Confession was written. Luther’s wife, Katharina von Bora, died in Torgau in 1552.

Following the Napoleonic Wars, Torgau devolved to Prussia, not to come under Saxon authority again until the founding of the Free State of Saxony. Torgau has since picked up the thread of its tradition as an electoral Saxon residency.