Colditz Castle - walking into the prisoners' courtyard

Walking into the inner [prisoners'] courtyard at Colditz Castle from just outside the Guard house, we are greeted by this view. Hundreds of men were housed here in these buildings and this courtyard was their only area for exercise, except occasionally when they were marched outside the Castle under heavy guard for a couple of hours' exercise in the Park to the east of the castle. For much more material on Colditz Castle, including many more videos, visit my website at www.virtualcolditz.com

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• colditz
• castle
• escape
• inner
• courtyard
• prisoners
• full
• view

[virtualcolditz]

If you Google Calver Mill, some of the images will be immediately recognisable as the Laufen set. The shots in the title and end sequences are actual views of the castle; you may recognise some of them from the virtualcolditz website, although the Castle was in much worse condition at that time; very tumbledown it was. There is also a nice shot of the Castle from the riverbank in Episode 3, just before Player gets there - I think it was then, anyway.

[virtualcolditz]

It was filmed in several places.

Some of the filming was at Calver Mill in Derbyshire, especially for the Laufen scenes in Episode 1.

Some shots, like at the end of Series 1 - Gone Away - were also filmed there.

I think that the scenes in the courtyard were indeed a mock-up; the slopes of the ground are all wrong.

Finally some of the shots are indeed of the Castle like at the end of Episode 3 where it pans around the roofs.

[virtualcolditz]

The solitary cells are in the buildings just on your left as you come in to the courtyard. They are visible at about 0:58 to 1:03 in the video; accessed via that small 'building' with the steps leading up to it.

[stuh1975]

Was the 1972-74 series of Colditz actually filmed at the castle or was it a close mock up?? A lot of the scenes of the prisoners yard in the series look very similar to the real thing.

[yelloworangered]

So this is the view described in the beginning of the book, "The Colditz Story." The author is marched in with other prisoners and sees the courtyard. Which windows were the "solitary" cells where they first saw prisoners waving and smiling to them?

[mikec10001212]

Thanks for the video. i visited there 2 years ago and am glad i did.shame you cant get to the prisoners cells now though.