Tour of Colditz Castle
Page Four

Situated next to the chapel’s entrance is a door which opens at the bottom of a spiral staircase, leading up to some of the prisoner’s living quarters.

This door is situated at the bottom of a high clock tower, the peak of which forms the highest point of Colditz castle.

In 1941, the Societe Anonyme du Tunnel de Colditz - the SATC - recommended work to begin in the place where a tunnel entrance would be least expected - at the top of the clock tower! Click here for more information.

There are several doorways in the western face of the prisoner’s courtyard. These lead to the sickbay, the parcel’s office, the cellars, and next to the courtyard entrance, the solitary confinement cells. The rooms above the ground floor were used as the living quarters for the French and the Belgians. In the attic above these rooms, the secret French radio hide was concealed for the duration of the war. It was only discovered in 1993, when restorations were being carried out on the roof of the attic. Click here for more information.

Returning to the Kommandantur, the alternative exit from this courtyard (in its eastern face) leads to a small path outside of the castle walls. This was the route taken by the prisoners on the small walk to, and from, the recreation area. This walk, and the exercise period within the park, often provided the best possibilities for escape attempts.

This path continues, on several layers, round the outside walls of the castle in an anti-clockwise direction.
Much of this part of the castle is now heavily grown over, and the whole area is actually out of bounds to the general public (but obviously, not understanding the German word ‘verboten’, or noticing the huge metal fences which I had to squeeze past, I ventured on).
At the bottom of a steep hill to the right of this path is the recreation area. To the left of the path is a small approach to the grass area upon which the canteen tunnel’s exit emerged. At the bottom of this small approach protrudes a buttress in the castle wall.

In late 1941/early 1942, finding this buttress to be hollow, the Poles began to dig a tunnel at its base. Click here for more information.

The path continues round the exterior walls of the castle, passing many interesting locations that are connected with a number of escape attempts from the castle. The path ends at a fairly large garden situated in the north-west corner of the castle, directly behind the guardhouse.