Alt-Morungen Castle

First mentions of the castle date back to the first half of the 11th century, when Count Goswin the Elder of Leige was named as its owner. Around 1030, he gave the castle as a dowry to his daughter Sigena, who married Wiprecht, the lord of the Balsamer Land. Their son, Wiprecht von Groitzsch, initially gained great influence at the imperial court. However, he later came into conflict with the imperial house, and to ransom his imprisoned son, he had to return his possessions in Morungen to Emperor Heinrich V in 1112. The emperor then enfeoffed Count Hoyer von Mansfeld with the castle. After the Battle of Welfesholz in 1115, in which Hoyer fell, Wiprecht regained his possessions. In 1157, the Groitzsch family sold the lordship to Emperor Frederick I. From this time on, the Lords of Morungen appeared as castlemen, from whose lineage the minnesinger Heinrich von Morungen possibly originated.