Leuchtenburg

The Leuchtenburg was a medieval hilltop fort on the northern slope of the Schönleite mountain, south-west of Bad Tabarz in the Thuringian Forest. It stood on a small rise 600 metres above sea level, about two kilometres from Tabarz, beside the old trade road that climbed to the Grenzwiese pass and the Kleiner Inselsberg. The fort once controlled the route with a barrier and toll gate where north- and south-bound merchants had to stop and pay. Carl Lerp, writing in 1889, described how the Stolzenburg tower stood two hundred metres away and how a second watch-post called the Kleine Leuchtenburg once guarded the path into the Lauchatal valley. During the robber-knight era the Leuchtenburg’s men would let travellers pass the gate in safety only to attack them further along the road. The fort was mentioned in Johannes Rothe’s 15th-century chronicle as part of the Thuringian succession war between 1247 and 1263. Later it was rebuilt to secure the Schönleite pass, but quarrying in the 19th century removed all visible traces. Today the site offers a quiet hilltop walk with views across the Thuringian Forest and the remains of the Stolzenburg still visible nearby.