After heavy damage during the siege in the Schmalkaldic War in 1547, the Elector Maurice of Saxony built a fortification with moats. After the Thirty Years War the castle lost its significance and was used as an administrative building and barracks. In the 18th century the newly founded Leipzig Art Academy was based in the Pleissenburg and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe studied here. The naturalist Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau also studied here.