The cas­tle is as old as the city and was con­struct­ed to pro­tect min­ing and trade. Some of Sax­ony’s elec­tors resided here most of the time and some of their princes were born here. In the sec­ond half of the 16th cen­tu­ry, it was trans­formed into a more com­fort­able Renais­­sance-style palace. In 1784, the mil­i­tary took over the build­ing and con­vert­ed it to an arms depot. Nowa­days, it hous­es the world’s largest col­lec­tion of min­er­als, gems and mete­orites that was donat­ed by a pri­vate col­lec­tor to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Freiberg.