The Federzimmer: the feather room at Moritzburg
Coming out from Dresden?The castle sells its own admission at its own counter, so what is worth booking ahead is the ride: a guided day that carries the ticket for you, or a car from Prague. Every one of them cancels free up to 24 hours before, and one of the six is Moritzburg and nothing else.
See the ways out thereWhat it actually is
Not feathers glued to a surface. The feathers are worked into the canvas itself, which is why the thing survived at all and why putting it back together took as long as it did. Stand close and the colours shift as you move, because the material is structural rather than painted. Stand back and it reads as a very rich textile and you lose the point, so get close.
Nineteen years
That is the number that stops people. A restoration that ran nineteen years and finished in 2003, on an object made of about a million individual bird feathers. It is also the reason the room is not lit brightly and the reason it will never be a room you are hurried through.
The room I would put beside it
The dining room, with 71 antler trophies on its walls, most of them 270 to 400 years old, including the heaviest red deer antler in the world at 19.8 kilograms and nearly two metres across. I think it is the stronger room. Most visitors disagree with me and come for the feathers. Both rooms, in order.
The season it belongs to
The baroque exhibition runs 20 March to 1 November. The castle then shuts completely from 2 to 19 November. From 20 November to 28 February the building holds the Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel exhibition — Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella — at the same admission price, and while that is on, the baroque rooms are not part of the visit. The Federzimmer is baroque-season only. A February visitor stands in the same rooms and sees film costumes. The calendar, and what the ticket costs in either season.
The castle sells its own admission at its own counter and on schloss-moritzburg.de. There is no Moritzburg entry ticket on GetYourGuide, so nothing on this site is a substitute for that counter. What the platform sells is the journey, and two of the six listings that reach Moritzburg carry a castle ticket inside the day: the guided day from Dresden and the private Prague car that pairs Moritzburg with the Zwinger.
A guided day that reaches the baroque rooms
Eight hours from Dresden, Meißen and its porcelain works in the same trip, a live guide in four languages, and the Moritzburg admission named in the inclusions. Per group of up to ten, around four hundred and twenty euros, rated 4.6 from 3 reviews. Book a date inside the baroque season if the feather room is why you are coming.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Federzimmer at Moritzburg Castle?
A bed and wall hangings carrying roughly a million peacock, pheasant, guinea fowl and duck feathers woven into canvas, bought by Augustus the Strong in 1723 and moved to Moritzburg in 1830.
How many feathers are in the Moritzburg feather room?
About a million, from peacocks, pheasants, guinea fowl and ducks, worked into the canvas rather than attached to its surface.
Can you see the feather room in winter?
No. It belongs to the baroque exhibition, which runs 20 March to 1 November. From 20 November the same rooms hold the Cinderella exhibition instead.