Neuenburg Castle (German: Schloss Neuenburg) is a hilltop castle overlooking Freyburg, a town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

The castle was built around 1090 by the Thuringian count Ludwig der Springer, securing his territory in the east, as did its sister castle Wartburg in the west. The name Neuenburg derives from German for "new castle".

From 1656 until 1746 it was a secondary residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Weissenfels.

Schloss Neuenburg (Freyburg)

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Goseck, a monastery built on the foundations of a castle, as well as the vineyard of Dechantenberg is located in the municipality of Goseck of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It has been proposed by Germany for inscription in the List of World Heritage. The World Heritage nomination Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut is representative for the processes that shaped the continent during the High Middle Ages between 1000 and 1300: Christianization, the so-called “Landesausbau” and the dynamics of cultural exchange and transfer characteristic for this very period.

World Heritage Nomination

Goseck and its vineyard is one of the eleven components of the cultural landscape Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut. Together with the agricultural features on the northern slopes of the Saale and the sandstone quarries used for the building of the monastery, this ensemble conveys the different forms of land use of the medieval monastery structures.

History

Goseck Castle was part of a network of Frankish castles on the Saale River. It was founded around the year 800. The counts of Goseck were one of the noblest aristocratic families of the empire in the 10th and 11th century. Count Frederick I of Goseck had his center of power in Goseck . In 1041, Adalbert (archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen from 1043) founded a Benedictine monastery in the eastern part of the noble castle of Goseck. The minster was erected in 1046.

Today

Around 1540, the monastery was secularized. Since 1997, Goseck is owned by the »Landesstiftung Dome und Schlösser Sachsen-Anhalt«, a state foundation endowed by the State of Saxony-Anhalt . Today, a European Centre for Music and Culture (“Europäisches Musik und Kulturzentrum”) resides in Goseck and offers a range of cultural activities.

Schloss Goseck

The Rudelsburg is a ruined hill castle located on the east bank of the river Saale above Saaleck, a village in the borough of Naumburg in the county of Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The Rudelsburg was built in the Middle Ages by the Bishop of Naumburg and served to secure trade routes such as the Via Regia through the Saale Valley.

The Rudelsburg was a point of conflict between the bishops of Naumburg and the Margraves of Meissen belonging to the House of Wettin. The castle occasionally served various noble families as a residence, until it was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War and thereafter fell into disrepair. In the early 19th century the Rudelsburg became a popular tourist destination thanks to the romanticisation of mountains and the rise of hiking as a pastime. From 1855 onwards it achieved national renown as the annual meeting place of the Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband, the oldest union of student fraternities with delegates from all German-speaking countries. The Rudelsburg still maintains a particular attraction for visitors and lies on the Romanesque Road (Ger:Straße der Romanik), a tourist route.

History

Archaeological finds seem to indicate that an early Bronze Age settlement existed on the site of the Rudelsburg, which has been attributed to the Unetice culture. The discovery of the Nebra sky disk attracted public attention to this prehistoric civilisation and its elevated culture and provoked interest in the settlements in the region of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The political, religious and economic importance of such settlements has not yet been established, but is the focus of intense research.

Military fortification and seat of nobility

The Rudelsburg castle was established in 1050 as a border fortification and was extended around 1150, with the addition of the central and outer keeps. Not far away on the western knoll is the ruin of Saaleck Castle. Rudelsburg was officially mentioned for the first time in 1171 under the name Rutheleibisberg.

Heinrich III, Margrave of Meissen, received the castle from the Bishop from Naumburg in 1238 as recompense for services to the church and installed there a number of families belonging to the nobility of service (retainers to a lord whose status was far above that of the peasantry but who nonetheless did not belong to the ranks of the high nobility). A source from 1271 names 12 different castellans. A priest is mentioned for the first time in 1293.

During a dispute with the noble Curtefrund, the citizens of Naumburg led by their captain Johann von Trautzschen laid siege to the Rudelsburg from 22 April to 30 July 1348. The sources relate that an “instrumentum” was brought to bear during the siege that could shoot Greek fire.[1] This must have been some early form of gunpowder and is thought to be one of the first records of the use of firearms in a siege in Germany. The only earlier recorded use of ordnance dates back to the siege of the town of Meersburg on Lake Constance by Ludwig von Bayern in 1334. The oldest reports in all of Europe are from Italy (Florence 1326, Cividale 1331) and from the French fleet (1338-1346).

The citizens of Naumburg burnt down the Rudelsburg during their siege, and there were deaths and injuries on both sides. It seems that the castle was not rebuilt, as it is not mentioned in any official document for several decades after this event.

The next mention of the castle dates to 1383, when the Schenk family from Saaleck belonging to the House of Vargula are named as masters of the citadel, seated in Rottelsburg.

A loan certificate of the Dukes of Saxony, who belonged to the House of Wettin, dated 2 April 1441 names the brothers Rudolf, Günther and Heinrich von Bünau as the owners of the Rudelsburg. Apparently they owned no land other than that on which the castle stood.

During the fratricidal war between Friedrich and Wilhelm of Saxony, the Rudelsburg was besieged and destroyed for a second time in 1450. The inner keep was burnt to the ground during this incident.

At the division of the lands of the House of Wettin in 1485, the Rudelsburg was attributed to the Albertine line.

Rudolph von Bünau auf Teuchern and Günther von Bünau auf Gröbitz sold the Rudelsburg and the surrounding outworks to Hans Georg von Osterhausen in 1581 to cover their debts. The castle, which had been barely maintained until then, began to fall into decay during this period.

Although Groitzsch still describes the Rudelsburg as arx pulcherrima ("most beautiful castle") in his 1585 work Descriptio Salae fluvii eidemque adjacentium urbium, arcium etc. (Description of the river Saale and the surrounding towns, castles, etc.), a record from 1612 indicates that the lord marshal of Osterhausen employed a stonemason and a carpenter to provide "necessary support of the sagging beams, girders and rafters".

According to Osterhausen court records, a process was held at the Rudelsburg on 4 June 1616. At the time, a caretaker still lived in the castle, which was accessible via a narrow road. The courtyard was covered in grass. Besides a small room with a wooden pulpit, the usable remains of the castle included the dungeons with their very strong doors.

Towards the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1640, Swedish troops set fire to the Rudelsburg. Following this third destruction, the Rudelsburg was abandoned on 14 April 1641 and the inhabitants moved to the nearby Kreipitzsch property.

The nobles from Creutz(en) are believed to have been the owners of the Rudelsburg from 1671 to 1771. In 1690, they tried to establish the status of the (uninhabited) castle as a possession owing direct allegiance only to the emperor (Reichsunmittelbarkeit) in a court process in the imperial court in Wetzlar.

In 1770, the owner of the Rudelsburg ordered that the walls of the outer keep be torn down in order to reuse the stones for construction on the property, but a worker was permanently injured in an accident, and this was interpreted as a bad omen. The work was stopped. The outer keep was almost completely destroyed at this point in time, and it is probably only as a result of this accident that the ruined inner keep was preserved.

With the death of Friedrich Adolph von Creutz in 1774, the male line of the family was extinguished. This thwarted the plans to establish the Reichsunmittelbarkeit of the Rudelsburg.

In the following years, the counts from Zech and the counts from Brühl are named briefly as the owners of the Rudelsburg. The family von Schönberg bought the castle in 1797 and established an entailment, i.e. an indivisible trust that was designed to keep together the inheritance of the family.

The Rudelsburg as a destination for hikers and a tourist attraction

In the 19th century, the Rudelburg became a meeting point for romantically-minded hikers, especially for students from Jena, Leipzig and Halle.

By this time, the castle was desolate, and devoid of all infrastructure. There was no entrance into the courtyard of the central keep and there were no sealed rooms, just rubble and debris. In 1818, the cantor emeritus, Johann Friedrich Förtsch, described the Rudelsburg as follows:

“The inner courtyard is covered in the rubble of the various ceremonial halls, chambers, weapon and storage rooms, kitchens, underground vaults, cellars and corridors, which have collapsed. It is thus impossible to say how everything used to be arranged.”

Nonetheless, ever more visitors came to the Rudelsburg. During the same period, the masters of the castle belonging to the family of the barons von Schönberg planted grapevines on the southern slope of the hill. One of the former vineyard workers, Gottlieb Wagner, known as “Samiel”, began to look after the ruins. From 1824 onwards, he offered food and drink from the Kreipitzsch property to visitors.

In this song, the castles on the Saale are decaying ruins that serve only to inspire the imagination. There is as yet no mention of drinking and celebrations or of the Rudelsburg as a venue for events.

The attractiveness of the castle rose however with the services offered by Wagner, so much so that the head of the district authorities in Naumburg asked Friedrich von Schönberg, the owner of the property, if it would be possible to open it officially for visitors. Consequently, a road was even built up to the castle.

Gottlieb Wagner opened the first tavern in the castle in time for Easter 1827, although it was only open on Sundays at first. When word got around about this development amongst the students in Jena, they marched on the Rudelsburg and, cheering loudly, occupied it for three days. The owner of the castle was honoured with a torchlight procession.

The completion of the Thuringian Railway in 1849, which improved the access to the Rudelsburg, coupled with the gastronomic offerings, further increased the attractiveness of the castle and brought in visitors from further abroad, including for example students from Leipzig and Halle an der Saale.

During a large-scale Prussian military exercise in the area in 1853, the provincial classes invited King Frederick William IV to breakfast at the castle. The drinking hall in the inner courtyard, which was built in the same year, is probably a product of this visit. The hall took the form of a roofed seating area that was open to the courtyard and replaced the old straw roof that had been held up by simple tree trunks.



Rudelsburg

Saaleck Castle (German: Burg Saaleck) is a hill castle near Bad Kösen, now a part of Naumburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

In 1922, two of the men who had killed Walther Rathenau, the foreign minister of Germany, hid at Saaleck Castle but were tracked down by the police. The Nazi regime later put up a memorial plaque at the castle and turned their grave in Saaleck cemetery into a heroes' shrine.

The castle is now mostly ruined, but its two towers feature small exhibits and it is a popular tourist attraction. Saaleck Castle is a stop on the designated tourist route Straße der Romanik ("Romanesque Road").

History

In 1922, two of the assassins of German foreign minister Walther Rathenau were spotted at the castle, whose owner was himself a secret member of the Organisation Consul. On 17 July they were confronted by two police detectives. While waiting for reinforcements during the stand-off one of the detectives fired at a window, unknowingly killing Erwin Kern with a bullet in the head. Hermann Willibald Fischer then took his own life. The Nazis erected a memorial plate to them at the castle in July 1933.

Under East Germany’s communist regime, the complex served as a residential care home for the elderly. From 1995 until 2019, it was not used.

The Marzona Foundation acquired the property in 2018 and the German government has approved a grant of 7 million euros towards the site’s renovation. The Design Academy Saaleck plans to offer six-month stipends to work on individual and joint projects with a special focus on climate, sustainability and new technologies to 16 emerging designers, craftspeople or architects from around the world each year.

Description
The castle lies on a roof-shaped, west-facing muschelkalk ridge immediately south of the village of Saaleck, at a height of about 172 metres above sea level and is just under 23 metres high. The characteristic picture of the castle is dominated by its two bergfrieds, which have wall thicknesses of about 2 metres and are visible from a long way off. In the masonry of the west tower is a medieval garderobe and a stove that indicate where the residential level was. The centre of the castle was once surrounded by inner and outer defensive walls. By the inner wall are the remains of several domestic buildings. On the two narrow sides of the surrounding terrace were moats with ramparts in front of it. On the east side of the hill spur facing Rudelsburg there are more neck ditches, again guarded by ramparts.

Comparable castles with two round bergfrieds are Münzenberg, Hohandlau, Botenlaube and Thurant.

Burg Saaleck

Die Burg Camburg ist die Ruine einer Höhenburg im gleichnamigen Camburg, einem Ortsteil der an der Saale gelegenen Kleinstadt Dornburg-Camburg im Saale-Holzland-Kreis in Thüringen, etwa 20 km nördlich von Jena auf halber Strecke nach Naumburg.

Geschichte

Bereits in der zweiten Hälfte des 11. Jahrhunderts nahm eine Nebenlinie der Wettiner in Camburg ihren Sitz, nachdem diese von ihrer Stammburg aus schon saaleaufwärts in der Nähe von Weißenfels Fuß gefasst hatten. Nach 1088 tritt in einer Urkunde ein Wilhelm als Graf von Camburg auf. Er war der mittlere Sohn des Grafen Gero von Brehna (* um 1020; † nach 1089) und Bruder des 1079 von Gegenkönig Rudolf von Rheinfelden (reg. 1077–1080) zum Bischof von Naumburg erhobenen Günther I. von Wettin († 1090, reg. 1079–1090). Zusammen mit seinem älteren Bruder Graf Dietrich von Brehna († vor 1116) ist er unter den um 1250 geschaffenen Stifterfiguren im Westchor des Naumburger Domes dargestellt. Mit Wilhelm starb die Linie bereits vor 1116 im Mannesstamm aus und die Grafschaft Camburg fiel an den wettinischen Markgrafen von Meißen, Konrad den Großen (1123–1156).

Für die Markgrafen war die Burg als Stützpunkt gegenüber den Ludowingern von großer Wichtigkeit. Ihre Verkehrslage war außerordentlich günstig, lag sie doch an einem wichtigen Saaleübergang und (später?) dem Schnittpunkt der Saaltal- oder Nürnberger Straße mit der sogenannten Salzstraße, die von Sulza an der Ilm über Schmiedehausen heranführte.

Die Wettiner ließen die Burg durch Ministeriale verwalten, die der Familie eines Gerhards von Camburg angehörten. Von 1133 bis 1190 treten – meist in Naumburger Bischofsurkunden – auch Vertreter eines edelfreien Geschlechts auf, das sich ebenfalls nach Camburg benannte. Nach neueren Forschungen von Wolfgang Hartmann handelt es sich bei beiden Familien um Nachkommen des Grafen Dietmar von Selbold-Gelnhausen aus dem fränkischen Adelsgeschlecht der Reginbodonen, dessen Gattin Adelheid mit Graf Wilhelm von Camburg bzw. dessen Gattin Gepa nah verwandt war. Von Dietmar und Adelheid deszendieren nach Hartmann auch die Burggrafen von Kirchberg, die Edelfreien von Gleißberg (Kunitzburg) und weitere Adelsfamilien der Umgebung, möglicherweise auch die Lobdeburger. Innerhalb des schon erwähnten Naumburger Stifterzyklus ist das Bildnis Wilhelms von Camburg in auffälliger Form auf die Statue eines (erschlagenen) Grafen Dietmar ausgerichtet, bei dem es sich nach Hartmann um den Verwandten (wohl Schwager) Wilhelms handelt. Hartmann bringt auch die Camburger Cyriakuskapelle (als Adelheids Grabstätte) mit Dietmar in Verbindung und stellt die Frage, ob die Zweiteilung der Burg Camburg in einem besitzrechtlichen Nebeneinander der Grafen Wilhelm und Dietmar ihren Ursprung hat. Dafür könne die Tatsache sprechen, dass die wettinischen Erben Wilhelms von Camburg auch in der Geschichte der Burg Gelnhausen (als Vorgängerin der dortigen Kaiserpfalz) eine Rolle spielten.

Da Camburg offenbar eine zentrale Funktion für den südwestlichen Teil ihres Herrschaftsbereichs zugedacht war, bemühten sich die Wettiner um den Ausbau der Burgsiedlung, die dort bereits 1149 rechts der Saale bestand. Die Burg wird zum ersten Mal 1166 in einer Urkunde Markgraf Ottos des Reichen (1156–1190) urkundlich bezeugt. 1170 erscheint ein Kaplan von Camburg als Zeuge in einer Urkunde Markgraf Ottos. Die Burgkapelle selbst wird erstmals 1213 und in der Folgezeit mehrfach erwähnt. Am Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts gehörte die Camburg neben Leipzig und Meißen zu den wichtigsten Befestigungsanlagen Markgraf Albrechts I. des Stolzen (reg. 1190–1195). Im Zuge der Auseinandersetzung zwischen ihm und seinem jüngeren Bruder Dietrich wurde die Burg 1191 von dem mit Dietrich verbündeten thüringischen Landgrafen Hermann I. belagert und eingenommen. 1194/95 hat Albrecht die Burg offenbar erneut ausbauen lassen.

1280 soll Camburg im Zuge der Kämpfe Albrecht II. des Entarteten (1240–1314) mit seinen Söhnen durch Graf Günther von Kevernburg erfolglos belagert worden sein. Es wird auch zuweilen angenommen, dass auch Camburg zu den etwa 60 Burgen gehörte, die 1290/91 durch König Rudolf von Habsburg und die Stadt Erfurt zerstört worden sind. Nach häufigen Besitzerwechseln im 14. Jahrhundert wurde die Burg 1439 an die Vitzthume verkauft und im sächsischen Bruderkrieg 1450 durch Kurfürst Friedrich II. den Sanftmütigen (1412–1464) bis auf den Bergfried völlig zerstört.

Auch in der Folgezeit wechselten die Stadt und das Amt Camburg mit dem Platz der Burg noch häufig den Besitzer: 1485 kamen sie zunächst an die albertinische Linie, 1573 an die ernestinische Linie der Wettiner, 1603 an das aus dieser Linie hervorgegangene Herzogtum Sachsen-Altenburg und in der Folgezeit an weitere der vielfach wechselnden ernestinischen Herzogtümer. Am Ende der 19. Jahrhundert bzw. zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts wurde in der Ruine der Burg eine Gaststätte gebaut und das Gelände zu einem Park umgestaltet. Die Gastwirtschaft wurde im Januar und Februar 1935 abgerissen und die Unterburg zu einer „Jugendburg“ der Hitlerjugend und des Bund Deutscher Mädel ausgebaut.

Nach einer umfangreichen Sanierung wird der Bergfried seit 2006 als Museum genutzt und dient zudem als Aussichtsturm. In einem Gebäude der Burganlage befindet sich außerdem ein Standesamt.

Burg Camburg

Schkölen Castle (German: Burg Schkölen) is a partially preserved water castle stand at a height of 210 metres above sea level (NN) in the centre (Ringstraße 9) of the town of Schkölen in the county of Saale-Holzland-Kreis in the German state of Thuringia. Until 1977 the ruins of the water castle lay almost forgotten and overgrown with briars in the middle of the little town.

The foundation of the water castle probably goes back to a Slavic ringwork from the 10th century.

In 1031, the burgward of Szolin is first mentioned. In the 15th century, the castle was extended, but burnt down in 1536 and fell into ruins. In the 19th century, the castle acted as a forestry office and, in 1968 and 1989, excavations took place.

The former owners at the end of the 11th century were Count Wiprecht of Groitzsch, in 1158 Henry the Bavarian and in the 15th century, the Lords of Bünau.

The castle was a fort-like, rectangular structure with a two-storey timber-framed house and round tower.

Schkölen Castle

Das Schloss Frauenprießnitz steht in der Gemeinde Frauenprießnitz im Saale-Holzland-Kreis in Thüringen.

Geschichte

Das Schloss in Frauenprießnitz wurde in den Jahren 1605 bis 1608 durch die Schenken zu Tautenburg erbaut. An seiner Stelle stand vorher das Zisterziensernonnenkloster, das 1525 im Bauernkrieg zerstört wurde. Im Dreißigjährigen Krieg fiel beim großen Brand am 17. Mai 1638 fast das ganze Dorf zu Opfer und auch das Schloss. 1640 erfolgte der Wiederaufbau des Schlosses durch den Kurfürsten von Sachsen als neuen Eigentümer der Herrschaft Tautenburg.

1776 wurde das Justizamt von Tautenburg nach Frauenprießnitz verlegt. Das hatte zur Folge, dass im Schloss das Rentamt mit untergebracht worden ist. Daraufhin wurde 1780 mit Steinen der abgebrochenen Tautenburg das neue Rentamt errichtet. Der Zwiebelturm und die Unterkellerung mit dem Tonnengewölbe könnten noch Reste vom Alten Schloss sein. Aufgaben des Rentamtes waren das Eintreiben von Abgaben, Mieten, Messgeld sowie die Organisation der Frondienste. Im Gebäude hatte ein Richter seinen Sitz und auch ein Gefängnisraum war vorhanden.

Bis 1945 wurden die Gebäude und das Land als Domäne und Staatsgut genutzt. Die Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland (SMAD) forderte 1947 im Rahmen des Befehls 209 den Abbruch des gesamten Komplexes nach der Enteignung der bisherigen Besitzer. Am 10. Juli 1948 wurde neu verhandelt und der Erhalt des Hauptgebäudes beschlossen. Sämtliche Nebengebäude wurden abgebrochen. Danach wurde das frühere Rentamt mit seinem Umfeld hauptsächlich zur Unterstützung der Land- und Nahrungsgüterwirtschaft genutzt.

Nach der Wende wurde die Gemeinde Frauenprießnitz Eigentümerin des Gebäudes, die auch einige Räume nutzt.

Schloss Frauenpriessnitz

Querfurt Castle is the largest castle in central Germany and is visible from all directions as it towers over the town of Querfurt.

Visitors arriving by car can use one of the free visitors’ parking spaces and are then guided by the tourist signs to the old town, with its Baroque Ackerbürgerhäuser, houses formerly belonging to farmers with citizens’ rights, with their interesting house marks. These have been restored to their former glory through renovation works that were consistently accompanied by the protection of the houses as historical monuments.

Querfurt Castle was first mentioned in 9th century. It is one of the largest medieval castle in Germany. In the last decades Querfurt Castle became famous as set for medieval movies. E.g. movies like ‘The Physician’ or ‘Pope Joan’.

The best spot to start a walk through the old town of Querfurt is the marketplace. This takes its character from the town hall, whose main building dates from the late Gothic period and is still the seat of the town administration today. Opposite the town hall is the town information office, where guests can obtain flyers, souvenirs and further information.

As you walk further, you will come across the old town wall, two thirds of which has been preserved. This dates from the 14th century and gives visitors an idea of the former size of Querfurt. The late Gothic parish church is well worth visiting, including a walk round the cemetery, where graves can be found from five centuries.

The Thalgarten is in an idyllic position and leads to Thaldorf, where you will find a memorial to St Bruno, the Braunsbrunnen springs. In summer a visit to the Querfurt municipal swimming pool at the foot of the castle is highly recommended. The stainless steel pools with a sports and activity area, giant slide and diving platform offer recreation for young and old.
You can find out more about the town’s history and its most famous personalities, such as the important naturalist Johannes Schlaf or Jacob Christian Schäffer, the polymath and inventor of the washing machine, on a guided tour of the town, which the town information office will be pleased to arrange.

The cultural highlights include the Querfurt national holiday, the Brunnenfest fair on the Wednesday after Lent, or the castle festival, which is always held on the third weekend in June and features a different theme every year. The Querfurt farmers’ market takes place in the old town on the third Saturday in September, and is attended by farmers from the south of Saxony-Anhalt selling their own produce. It is also well worth visiting the Querfurt Christmas fair in the castle and the historic courtyards, which was recently honoured by the Minister-President when he referred to it as being the most attractive in Saxony-Anhalt.

Thanks to its transport connections, the town of Querfurt is also a good starting point for day trips to the surrounding region. A wealth of historic places, such as the cathedrals in Naumburg or Merseburg, the Luther sites in Eisleben or the many attractions in the town of Halle are no more than 30 km away.

An ideal souvenir of your visit to Querfurt is a bottle of the wine “Edler von Querfurt”, which is grown in the former monastery vineyard “St. Bruno” not far from the town, or the herbal liqueur “Dicker Heinrich”, named after the large round keep of the castle.


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Burg Querfurt

Merseburg Cathedral (German: Merseburger Dom) is the proto-cathedral of the former Bishopric of Merseburg in Merseburg, Germany. The mostly Gothic church is considered an artistic and historical highlight in southern Saxony-Anhalt.

History

Background

Merseburg acquired importance beyond the immediate region in the 10th century when it came to King Heinrich I (Henry I) by marriage. He built a Kaiserpfalz there overlooking the Saale and founded a church next to it, consecrated in 919. His son and successor, Otto I swore an oath on 10 August 955 to establish a diocese at Merseburg if God would grant him victory at the upcoming Battle of Lechfeld. In 968, the Diocese of Merseburg was established but dissolved in 981. In 1004 it was reestablished by King Heinrich II (Henry II).

Early Romanesque cathedral

Construction of the early Romanesque cathedral was begun by Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg in 1015. It was consecrated on 1 October 1021 in the presence of Emperor Heinrich II (Henry II) and his wife, Kunigunde.

However, the eastern part of the building collapsed twice within a few years and had to be rebuilt. It was only on 29 June 1042 that the cathedral was formally opened. Despite later construction, this early Romanesque structure still influences the appearance of today's cathedral. The lower parts of sanctuary (or choir), transept and western towers remain Romanesque as do the eastern towers almost to their roofs. Only the crypt still maintains the original spatial impression, however. The hall crypt is one of the oldest mostly unchanged structures of this type in Germany.

Late Romanesque/early Gothic

Around the middle of the 12th century the western towers were rebuilt, with late Romanesque octagonal upper levels put on top of the lower quadratic structures. The earlier quarry stone masonry was replaced by worked stones. The shape of the windows was later changed to Gothic style, probably in the second quarter of the 13th century when a new porch (or narthex) was added to the church. This was built circa 1230.

At the same time, western façade, western towers and the part in between including transept and sanctuary were mostly reconstructed under Bishop Ekkehard Rabils (1215/6-1240). It is also likely that the nave was changed substantially and largely attained its final form. Two vestries accessible from the sanctuary were likely also added during this period. The southern one today houses the treasury and the manuscript collection. Finally, the eastern towers were raised around the middle of the 13th century. One of them retains a Gothic roof, the other is topped by a Baroque roof.

Late Gothic hall church

Under Bishop Thilo von Trotha (1466-1514) the nave was rebuilt, due to the building of the adjacent Schloss/palace. The old nave was demolished in 1510 and the new nave built between 1510 (cornerstone laid) and 1514 (roof added). Von Trotha's successor, Adolf von Anhalt (1514-26) completed the work. The consecration was in 1517.

In 1515 the west portal was added. From 1535-7 the porch was redesigned as the burial chapel of Bishop Sigismund von Lindenau. The rood screen was demolished in 1588.

Later history and renovations
Since the Reformation the cathedral has not been the seat of a bishop. Martin Luther gave a sermon here in August 1545.

Renovations aimed at restoring the "original" look of the church took place in 1839, 1844/5 and 1883-6, Baroque elements were mostly removed (excluding the tombs, high altar, organ and the façade of the princely vault).

Damage sustained by palace and cathedral during World War II bombing were repaired starting in 1946. The interior was only finished in 1955. More exterior repairs followed in 1962-71 and the interior was renovated in 1972-4. Following reunification in 1990 (and especially after 2003) more extensive work was done both on the exterior and interior of the cathedral.

A statue of Thietmar von Merseburg was added to the cloister in 2007.

Today

The church is now owned and used by a Protestant congregation within the Evangelical Church in Central Germany.

It is open to the public. The Treasury exhibits altars from the 16th century, liturgical equipment, the so-called cloak of Otto I and the hand of Rudolf of Rheinfelden. The manuscript vault contains a 13th-century bible, a fragment of the Ravenna Annals, a manuscript from the 9th century and a 10th-century sacramentary. The incantations vault holds a facsimile of the Merseburg Incantations or Merseburger Zaubersprüche. The southern wing now houses de:Europäisches Romanik Zentrum (European Centre for Romanesque Art).

Merseburg Cathedral is known in musical circles for its large romantic organ, built by Friedrich Ladegast in the mid-19th century.

Merseburg Cathedral

Das Schloss Merseburg ist ein Schloss im Stil der Renaissance[1] in der Stadt Merseburg in Sachsen-Anhalt. Es war Königspfalz, Bischofssitz und Herzogsresidenz.

Geschichte

Kaiser Otto I. gründete im Jahre 968 das Bistum Merseburg. Bischof Heinrich von Warin ließ das erste Schloss von 1245 bis 1265 erbauen. Unter Bischof Thilo von Trotha erfolgte etwa 1470 bis 1500 der Neubau des Schlosses als Dreiflügelanlage, wobei der Merseburger Dom einen vierten Flügel bildet.

Bei der Leipziger Teilung im Jahr 1485 wurde Merseburg dem albertinischen Herzogtum Sachsen zugeschlagen. Nach dem Tod des letzten katholischen Bischofs im Jahr 1561 setzte sich auch in Merseburg die Reformation endgültig durch. Das Hochstift Merseburg wurde säkularisiert und kam in den Besitz der Kurfürsten von Sachsen. Bis zum Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts behielt es aber zur Verwaltung des Landes im Auftrage des Fürsten eine eigene Stiftsregierung. Von 1656 bis 1738 war Merseburg Residenzstadt der Herzöge von Sachsen-Merseburg, einer Sekundogeniturlinie der Albertiner. Als Witwensitz für die Herzoginnen diente das Schloss Delitzsch.

In den Jahren 1604 und 1605 folgten umfassende Erneuerungen unter Melchior Brenner[5] im Auftrag von Herzog Johann Georg I. von Sachsen. Aus dieser Zeit stammt auch der Neptunbrunnen im Innenhof. Der 1661 angelegte Schlossgarten gehört heute zum Netzwerk Gartenträume Sachsen-Anhalt.

Das Schloss wurde im 19. Jahrhundert renoviert und diente ab 1815 als Sitz der preußischen Bezirksregierung. Gegenwärtig ist es Sitz der Kreisverwaltung des Landkreises Saalekreis.

Der im Zweiten Weltkrieg zerstörte Ostflügel wurde bis 1971 originalgetreu wieder aufgebaut.

Heutige Nutzung

Das Schloss Merseburg ist Eigentum des Landkreises Saalekreis. In der historischen Anlage hat heute die Kreisverwaltung ihren Sitz.

Die Besichtigung des Schlosses ist in Führungen möglich, die Außenanlagen des Schlosses sind jederzeit frei zugänglich.

Neben der Kreismusikschule Johann-Joachim Quantz des Saalekreises werden die Gebäude auch vom 1906 gegründeten Kulturhistorischen Museum genutzt. Zu den Dauerausstellungen des Museums gehören „Glasperlarbeiten des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts“ und „Historische Zündgeräte und Feuerzeuge“.

Das Kulturhistorische Museum, eine Einrichtung des Landkreises Saalekreis, stellt auf 3 Etagen (1800 Quadratmeter) die Geschichte und Entwicklung der Stadt Merseburg von der Ur- und Frühgeschichte bis zur Gegenwart dar. Schwerpunkt wird auf die Darstellung der barocken Residenz der Herzöge Sachsen-Magdeburg gelegt. Neben diesem Kernthema findet sich in weiteren Räumen Dauerausstellungen zur Glasperlenarbeit und eine Sammlung an altertümlichen und skurrilen Zündgeräten und Feuerzeugen.

Im April 2013 dienten Teile der Schlossanlage als Kulisse für George Clooneys Film Monuments Men – Ungewöhnliche Helden.

Schloss Merseburg

The Dornburger Schlösser are three stately homes on a hill overlooking the Saale River in Dornburg-Camburg, 11 km north of Jena. They were the possession of the Dukes of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

Description

The Alte Schloss (old castle) is an eclectic mix of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque styles and is the larger of the three. The Renaissanceschloss (Renaissance castle) was built in 1539 in replacement of a 14th-century manor house. The Italian-style Rokokoschloss (Rococo castle), erected in 1774, is the smallest but also the prettiest. It is more a villa or a pavilion than an actual castle.

A common park for the three castles was laid in the 18th and 19th centuries based on the French and English landscape gardening techniques. A terrace, open all year round, offers spectacular views of the Saale valley.

In 1828, following the death of his patron, Grand Duke Carl August, Goethe retired for two months to the Renaissance Castle.


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