Wasserburg Kapellendorf

The Wasserburg Kapellendorf stands in a shallow valley of the Sulzbach stream in the village of Kapellendorf, halfway between Jena, Weimar and Apolda. Founded in the 12th century, it is one of the largest and best-preserved castles in Thüringen and now serves as a museum and event venue. The site also houses an outpost of Erfurt’s city museum. Excavations in 1933 uncovered nearly a tonne of medieval pottery, glass, metal and bone finds across the grounds. The earliest traces go back to the early Bronze Age, while the majority of artefacts date from the Middle Ages. A 12th-century stone ring-wall, 32 metres wide and protected by a ditch, still encloses the inner bailey. Inside, the lower part of a round bergfried with ten-metre diameter survives, built of rare buckle quoins. A 10.8-metre-deep well and a rainwater cistern once supplied the garrison. The 14th-century expansion added a five-storey residential tower, a kitchen block with a large fireplace, and an outer ward shaped like an irregular pentagon. The whole complex is surrounded by a 30-metre-wide moat and once included a rampart and two high flanking towers at the main approaches. The southern gate still shows its Gothic portal in the curtain wall. Inside, Erfurt stored weapons, armour and foodstuffs listed in a 1392 inventory.