Oytin is a small town with a big history

100 km northeast of Hamburg in the picturesque region of Holstein Switzerland is the small town of Oitin, where a great European history was written. It lies on the shore of the Great Oyta Lake, where in the 8th century the Slavic settlement Utin was formed.

In the castle of this city, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great spent her childhood, then Princess Sofia Augusta Frederick of Anhalt-Tserbskaya. Her mother was an oitin and was born in this castle. There, Princess Sofia Augusta was introduced to her future husband, Prince Karl Peter Ulrich Holstein-Gottorpsky, the grandson of Peter I, who was destined to become Russian Tsar Peter III.

Portraits of the Russian royal family and a picture painted by Catherine the Great can be seen in the Oyta Castle.

In the city of Oytin was born the great German composer Carl Maria von Weber, the founder of German romantic opera. In honor of him, an open-air opera festival is held in the castle park every year.

This park will host a regional garden and park exhibition from April to October 2016, where you can enjoy the beauty of landscape design.

In Oyta Castle in 1972, episodes of the Hollywood film Cabaret were filmed with Liza Minnelli in the title role.

The city of Oytin is called the northern Weimar, because many great German poets, philosophers and artists lived and worked here.

During the walking tour we will walk through the old town and get acquainted with its history, architecture and famous residents. Then we will visit the Oyta Castle and get in touch with the history of not only Germany, but also Russia. And from April 2016 you can walk through the magnificent park of the castle on the lake.

You can complete a walk around the city in a private Oitin brewery and eat hearty German cuisine, washing them down with fresh local beer, which is brewed here according to an old tradition from the 17th century.