In the so-called "Zornfeuer" of 1766, the city burned down completely; Only the town church and the castle on the Burglehn were spared. During the withdrawal of the Napoleonic army from Russia in 1813, Württemberg cuirassiers brought a typhus epidemic to Muskau, which killed around a fifth of the population. The inhabitants lived (with a few exceptions) in the status of hereditary subservience, which was only ended after 1815 under Prussian rule.