Könitz Castle

Könitz Castle, also known as Schloss Könitz, is a former hilltop castle and current palace located on the "Schlossberg" at 345 m above sea level in the Könitz district of the municipality of Unterwellenborn in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district in Thuringia. The palace is the landmark of Könitz.

The castle was presumably built around 800 as a wooden castle by a knight of Conz and was first mentioned in a document in 1125 with the transfer of the Könitz possessions by Adalbert and Christine von Conz to Saalfeld Monastery, while they retained the use of the castle for life.

After changes of ownership, the castle came into the possession of the von Hobach family in 1438, and the castle tower received a stone mantle in 1450. Around 1562, the castle was converted into a Renaissance-style palace, completed under Veit Dietrich von Holbach. After the extinction of the Halbach family, the palace came into the possession of the Counts of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.

After several changes of ownership, the palace came into the possession of the State of Thuringia in 1918. After the end of the war in 1945, the palace was used for various purposes until it burned down and was completely destroyed in 1951. From 1954 to 1955, the palace was rebuilt, served as a "retirement home," after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 as a "psychiatric nursing home," and has been back in private ownership since 2006.