Schloss Elgersburg

Schloss Elgersburg stands on a 500-metre rock in the village of Elgersburg in the Thuringian Forest. First mentioned in 1139, it began as a fortress for the Counts of Käfernburg guarding an old trade route. The Henneberg counts bought it in 1288, then the von Witzleben family owned it for nearly four centuries. From 1520 the upper castle was added, while the lower castle with its gatehouse was rebuilt in 1567 and again in the 17th century.

The castle is made of irregular stone wings rising three or four storeys. Inside the courtyard, neo-Romanesque bay windows, windows and reliefs line the façades. A rare feature is the semicircular keep from 1567 with a six-metre-deep dungeon and movable spherical gun ports. Between 1903 and 1906 the von Frege-Welzin family turned it into a residential palace.

Today the community of Elgersburg owns the building. During the GDR years it served as a holiday home for the FDGB union. The stone wings, the keep and the courtyard with its ornate windows remain as witnesses to seven centuries of building and ownership.