Seebach Castle

Seebach Castle, also known as Seebach Water Castle, is a former moated castle in the Seebach district (Lindenhof 3) of the municipality of Weinbergen in the Unstrut-Hainich district (Thuringia).

The moated castle is said to have been built around 1227 by Lutz von Seebach on behalf of the Archbishops of Mainz. The castle, originally a Mainz, and from the mid-16th century a Saxon fief, was often used as collateral. On July 25, 1307, the Archbishop of Mainz pledged half of the castle to the brothers Albert and Hermann von Sebeche. Wolf von Seebach was the last of his lineage at Seebach Castle and died there childless in 1522.

In 1523, the ancestral estate of the von Seebach family passed to Günther von Bünau, ducal Saxon councilor, through his marriage to Wolf's sister, Brigitta von Seebach. After legal disputes, he already sold the fief of the castle in 1523 for 6,000 guilders to Hans Sittich von Berlepsch, the castle captain of Wartburg and bailiff in Eisenach and Querfurt. During the Peasants' War, the castle and the village were plundered and destroyed by rebellious peasants and citizens of Mühlhausen in early May 1525, and Hans von Berlepsch was imprisoned in Mühlhausen. After his liberation by the Duke of Saxony, the von Berlepsch family was reinstated in their possession, enfeoffed with it in 1527, and rebuilt the castle.

In the 19th century and from 1911 to 1914, the "castle" was converted into the multi-story stone building with an attached half-timbered structure that still exists today.

Already in 1885 and 1886, a bird sanctuary was established on the grounds, which was privately operated until 1908 and is still the oldest bird protection facility in Germany. Since 1936, it has been operated as the State Bird Observatory Seebach.