Burg Torstein

Burg Torstein stands on a narrow rocky spur 566 metres above sea level in the Thüringer Wald near Bad Tabarz. The ruin crowns a steep-sided ridge that rises about eighty metres above the Lauchagrund valley. A medieval trade road once passed directly beside the site, linking the Leuchtenburg and Stolzenburg castles less than two kilometres away. The spur itself is part of the Kleiner Wagenberg, a hill whose northern end features a natural porphyry arch called the Thorstein. The site began as an Urnenfelderzeit wall-burg, later reused in the High Middle Ages as a small outpost guarding the Leuchtenburg. In the 19th century the local historian Carl Lerp discovered that Duke Ernst of Gotha ordered a cave-like chamber to be blasted into the rock to enliven his favourite hunting lodge. Archaeologists have also found a stone hammer that confirms the earliest phase of occupation. Visitors follow a winding footpath down serpentine slopes to the protected area. A wooden shelter marks the start of the climb to the earthen ramparts that enclose the main plateau. The central section is now overgrown, but the northern edge still shows a small forecourt barely fifty by thirty metres, possibly an early sacred precinct. At the south-eastern tip a narrow passage through the Torfelsen rock leads to sheer drops on both sides, while the western flank is likewise protected by cliffs.