Kevernburg

The Käfernburg once stood on the Schlossberg above the village of Angelhausen-Oberndorf near Arnstadt in Thüringen. It was built around the year 1000 as a lookout and guard post for the old trade and military route through the Ohragrund valley and over the Oberhofer Pass. The first written record of the castle dates from 1141, when Sizzo III of Kevernburg appeared as a witness in a charter. For two centuries the castle was the seat of the Counts of Kevernburg, who ruled the surrounding county. The family died out in 1365, after which the castle passed through several hands. The castle changed owners many times through pawning, loans and inheritance. In 1387 Landgrave Balthasar of Thüringen bought the castle and Herrschaft, only to pawn it to his brother Wilhelm in 1394. After 1446 the lands went to the Counts of Schwarzburg. During the Thirty Years’ War the fortress fell into ruin. Local people took stones, bricks and timber to build houses and roads, and some of the material was even used in the nearby Arnstädter Schloss Neideck. Today only the earthworks of the old castle remain. No contemporary illustration survives to show how the Käfernburg once looked. The site offers a quiet place to walk among the remains of the walls and towers, with views over the Ilm valley and the surrounding Thüringer Wald. The path up the Schlossberg passes through meadows and small woods, giving a sense of the strategic position the castle once held.