Colditz is a small town in Saxony's Mulde valley, southeast of Leipzig. It would be a quiet riverside place without its castle, but that castle has made the name travel far beyond Germany.
Colditz Castle rises above the old town in a mass of white gables and high walls. It was a Renaissance hunting lodge, a hospital, a Nazi political prison, and most famously Oflag IV-C, the prisoner-of-war camp where Allied officers planned tunnels, disguises, forged papers, and even a glider.
The town itself is modest. The market square, the Zwickauer Mulde, and nearby Podelwitz Castle round out a visit, but Colditz is really for travellers with a taste for wartime history and unlikely escape stories. Come as a half-day from Leipzig, Grimma, or the Saxon castle route rather than as a stand-alone base.