Burgstelle Schlösschen

The Burgstelle Schlösschen stands on the Weinberg hill above Bad Salzungen in central Thüringen. It rises about twenty metres above the Werra valley floor at 300 metres above sea level, on a western spur of the Heimshöhe. The site once commanded a medieval route that ran north from Eisenach through the Moorgrund to Salzungen, with a nearby river crossing and an easy climb to the pass just east of the hill. Early records from 1811 by Ernst Julius Walch describe a levelled summit ringed by a deep ditch and covered with bushes and trees. Traces of a collapsed cellar and a small mound suggest a tower once stood there. Walch thought the castle may have belonged to the Lords of Salza, whose lands later passed to the Lords of Frankenstein and then to Friedrich von Salza. Later sand-stone quarrying removed much of the earthworks, though parts of the ditch survive along the slope edges. In the 1960s the local heritage officer G. Sennhenn surveyed what remained and produced a plan showing an oval outline. The site now offers quiet views across the valley and a sense of the old road’s route below.