Leuchtenburg Castle

Leuchtenburg is a hilltop castle in Seitenroda near Kahla in the Saale-Holzland district in Thuringia. It is considered the "Queen of the Saale Valley" and is located on a widely visible conical hill at an altitude of 395 meters above sea level and 240 meters above the Saale river level.

The name of the castle goes back to the surrounding clear, unwooded mountain.

On April 15, 1221, the castle was first mentioned in a document when Hartmann IV. von Lobdeburg-Leuchtenburg settled a legal dispute in Dornburg.

Alongside Lobdeburg, Leuchtenburg became the most important stronghold of the Lords of Lobdeburg during their advance to the southeast and the upper Saale. In the second half of the 13th century, the castle was significantly expanded.

In 1313, the Lords of Lobdeburg, who had heavily indebted themselves, had to pledge the castle to the Counts of Schwarzburg and finally sell it to them in 1333. After the Schwarzburgers were weakened by the Thuringian Counts' Feud, the Wettins managed to conquer the castle in 1392 and, in the Treaty of Leipzig in 1396, forced the Schwarzburgers to finally sell the castle to them.

Under the Wettins, the castle became the seat of an office for the administration of the surrounding Wettin villages. After the defeat of Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous in the Schmalkaldic War in 1547, the castle served as a refuge for the Elector's wife and children. In 1553, the then dried-up castle well was deepened to 80 m, making it the second deepest well in Thuringia.

During the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648, the castle was a frequently used refuge.

In 1702, the administration of the office was moved to Kahla. Part of the castle was then used as a penitentiary, poorhouse, and asylum. In the course of the territorial divisions among the Ernestines, the castle fell to the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg in 1724 and was used as a penitentiary, then Leuchtenburg fell to Saxe-Altenburg (later Free State of Saxe-Altenburg) in 1826, where it remained until 1920.

The penitentiary existed until 1871, when it was dissolved and the last prisoners were transferred to Zeitz. After that, part of Leuchtenburg temporarily served as a hotel (1873–1951) and continues to this day as a restaurant. Since 1906, the castle has also housed a museum, which has been expanded in several stages until today (2009). In the winter of 1920/1921, the castle served as a living and working place for Muck Lamberty and his "Neue Schar". In 1951, the Geschwister Scholl youth hostel was opened in place of the hotel, which was closed in 1997 due to outdated facilities. In October 2007, the Leuchtenburg Foundation, founded in March of that year, acquired the castle from the Thuringian State Development Company. A support association took over the operation.