Colditz Castle is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. Used as a workhouse for the indigent and a mental institution for over 100 years, it gained international fame as a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II for ‘incorrigible’ Allied officers who had repeatedly escaped from other camps.The castle lies between the towns of Hartha and Grimma on a hill spur over the Zwickauer Mulde and had the first wildlife park in Germany.