Stadtilm Castle

Today's town hall has a long and varied history. The first buildings, of which only parts remain today, were built when Count Günther VII of Käfernburg moved the Cistercian monastery of Saalfeld to Stadtilm in 1275. In 1287, the monastery was consecrated to Saint Mary, Nicholas, and Benedict, and Irmengard, a daughter of Günther VII, became the first abbess.

The monastery existed for about 250 years. As a result of the Reformation, Stadtilm became Protestant in 1533, the monastery was dissolved and passed to the Counts of Schwarzburg, but initially, due to property disputes, it was only a demesne, so large parts fell into disrepair. Only with the Stadtilm Treaty of 1599 were the disputes over the former monastery settled. However, it took until 1628 for the sons of Count Albrecht VII to have the then already uninhabitable building converted into a castle.

During the great town fire of 1780, the castle was also affected but rebuilt quite soon. In 1865, the volunteer fire brigade of the city was founded and had its first deployment during another fire in the castle, which this time, however, only spread to the stables. On October 13 (other sources: October 16), 1897, however, a major fire destroyed a large part of Stadtilm Castle. The ruin was acquired by the Müller brothers from Vieselbach and converted into the Schlossgasthof (Castle Inn). This was bought by the city administration in 1918 and converted into the town hall by 1920. A Ratskeller (council cellar) was established, and the Sparkasse (savings bank) also moved into the premises of the former inn. Since then, the former monastery has been the seat of the city administration. Unusual and unique in Thuringia is the location of the town hall directly on a street – every other comparably large or larger town in Thuringia has a town hall on a market or town hall square.

Today, the town's local history museum is also located in the town hall, offering a variety of exhibits on the history of Stadtilm and the surrounding area. Furthermore, the so-called crypt, probably the oldest part of the building, a room under the nuns' gallery of the monastery church, is worth seeing here. Below the local history museum is a medieval stone oven air heating system.