It’s hard not to be impressed by the Moritzburg Castle, a gorgeous Baroque palace that sits on the grounds of a Renaissance style hunting lodge that was built in the 1540s for Duke Moritz of Saxony, who the castle is named after.

Over a century later the chapel was added and the grounds expanded, including a miniature harbor and lighthouse for the lake. Cute! It even featured on the silver Taler coin during the 1600s.

In 1723, Augustus the Strong (aka “the Saxon Hercules”, as if he needed a cooler nickname) ordered renovation works to turn it into a pleasure palace, designed to boast of his hunts and feasts.

Nowadays, the stylish, luxurious rooms are full of expensive porcelain ornaments, gold-gilded leather, elaborate furniture and almost 40 contorted red deer antlers that are found in the so-called Monströsensaal, or “monstrosity room”. Not cute!