Witches' Dungeon in Penzlin Castle

• with the 'cucking stool' in the nave
• 16^th century

16th-century witches' dungeons are important architectural features with particular relevance to the aspect of heritage. Alleged witches were placed with their backs to the wall and laid in chains on the visible protrusion of the nave. The uniqueness of this structural legacy in Penzlin was once described by Otto Piper (1841-1921) in his 1895 study of castles (Burgenkunde).

The origins of Penzlin Castle date from the 13th century. The castle entered its darkest age when the tendrils of witch-hunting spread to Mecklenburg-Schwerin in the early modern period. In a contract of 1654 between Georg Heinrich von Maltzan (1624-1692) and the heirs to Moritz von Walsleben, von Maltzan explicitly reserved the right to use the bottommost pits of Penzlin Castle for witches and sorcerers.