Burg Schadeleben

Burg Schadeleben stands in the town of Schönebeck in the Salzlandkreis of Sachsen-Anhalt. It began as a medieval fortress built between 1310 and 1319 under Archbishop Burchard III of Magdeburg. The site was later enlarged in the 16th and 19th centuries to take on a more palatial appearance. Much of the complex was demolished in 1874, leaving only a three-storey house and remnants of its defences. The surviving parts include a gatehouse with a defensive wall, a former bath house, and a residential building from the original castle. The site’s history reflects broader changes in the region. During the Napoleonic Wars it became a military hospital after Marshal Ney occupied Schönebeck in 1806. Later, in the 20th century, the Heimatforscher Wilhelm Schulze arranged for important archives to be stored in a local salt mine and then moved the city archive into the old castle buildings. After 1945 the Burghof served as a reception centre for refugees and then became a care home in 1961. Today visitors can still see the medieval gatehouse and parts of the curtain wall. The former bath house and the surviving residential wing remain from the original castle. A later manor house called Haus Mechthild and fragments of the enclosing wall also stand on the site. The grounds offer a quiet view of the town’s history set against the wider landscape of the Salzlandkreis.