Old Office

The Building known as "Altes Amt" (old office) is located at the corner of the Bahnhofsstraße and the marketplace and formerly houses the inn "Zu den drei Schwaanen" (to the three swans) since renaissance times. Along with the hotel "Blauer Hecht" ( "blue pike",demolished in 1994) and the hostelry "Zum Goldenen Stern" (golden Star), the building was one of the oldest and most important inns and taverns in Borna.
In 1655, this building passed from private hands by purchase into the property of the Saxon Electoral Office and the officials were given their workplace here. From then on, the justice and rent office was housed here.

Although it was now an administrative building, the brewing right held by the previous user still existed. It was granted solely by the sovereign and provided the towns with a lucrative source of income, as the surrounding villages had to buy their beer here.

A special guest arrived in the spring and autumn of 1813. In the run-up to the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, King Frederick William III of Prussia and his military staff briefly set up their headquarters here.

From 1955 to 1968, the building housed the local history museum, wich becomes later on the city museum. It was silently closed down over night and the "Socialist Reconstruction Staff" moved in.

According to the motto: Borna will become a socialist town, all historic buildings except the town hall, the town church and the Reichstor were to make way for new buildings. In the early 1990s, the Sparkasse (savings bank) moved from the adjacent building (Bahnhofstraße), where it had been located since 1941, into the whole building.