The picturesque old town of Dachau is located in southern Germany, just 15 kilometres north-west of Munich in the Federal State of Bavaria. It is known by most people as the site of the Dachau Concentration Camp that existed here during World War II. However this quaint historic market town of 40,000 residents deserves a little investigation. Settled approximately 1,200 years ago, Dachau has some beautiful buildings and streets, it is home to the Schloss Dachau and the little 17th century Baroque Church of St Jakob. It was during the 19th and early 20th century an artist’s colony but today it is considered almost an outer suburb of Munich and a popular residential city for commuters and has more recently become a cultural hub for a range of attractions from the Dachau Palace Concerts, to the Dachau Music Summer and the traditional Dachau Folk Festival!!
Earliest references of Dachua indicate that the first settlement was founded in the 8th century and remained a small rural village until the 12th century when the first fortress was built on Giglberg Hill in Mitterndorf. This fortress was destroyed, later being replaced by the Schloss Dachau on the 500 metre castle hill. Built by the Counts of Dachau during the 16th century, the palace was originally a 4 winged complex with a court garden created on the site of the original castle. Today only one of the four wings is intact and houses the Banqueting Hall which is known for its beautiful wooden Renaissance ceiling. The attractive Baroque Palace gardens also remain and offer a panoramic view over Dachau to Munich and on clear days extending to the Alps. Another historic building in Dachau is the 17th century Parish Church of St Jakob, whose 44 metre octagonal tower dominates the picturesque Old Town centre, and just to the west of the centre in Mitterndorf, can be found the 15th century Church of St Nicolas. Located in the centre of the Old Town is the new Rathaus (City Hall) which unfortunately replaced the original building due to its deteriorating condition.
Due to the special quality of light that pervades Dachau, especially around the Dachauer Moos, or fens, many artists were attracted here during the 19th and early 20th century, becoming one of Europe’s most important artist’s colonies. This connection has led the city to become an active member of the Euro-Art organisation, the European Federation of Artist’s Colonies. Today the city is home to the Dachau Painting Gallery which displays a permanent collection of typical landscapes of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the New Gallery Dachau, which is exclusively dedicated to contemporary art. If curiosity calls for more information on the city, take a look at the Dachau District Museum, which, over three floors displays the growth of the town and the everyday lives of its citizens.
The main reason visitors travel to Dachau though is due to its close proximity to the Dachau Concentration Camp, known as KZ Dachau. This complex was built to the east of the city in 1933, on the site of the ‘Royal Powder and Ammunition Factory Dachau’, an existing gunpowder factory. This camp was the first large scale concentration camp of the Nazi regime and was built for political prisoners, particularly communists, who were later joined by social democrats and Jews. The first detainees arrived in March 1933 and the camp operated until April 1945. In 2007 the ‘Path of Remembrance’ was opened by the city of Dachau and focuses on the historic footpath between the railway station and the camp. Today the camp is open to the public and maintains a museum. It is worth mentioning that this camp was not a death camp such as Auschwitz, and that in total over 200,000 prisoners were held here, with two thirds being political prisoners and one third Jews. Deaths in the camp resulted primarily from malnutrition, disease and suicide.
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