Mittelalter entdecken

Modernes Mittelalter in Weißensee 

Kann es sein, dass die Ludowinger Landgrafen hier eine Burg errichtet haben, die im 13. Jahrhundert schon über eine Warmluftheizung verfügte? Steht hier das älteste Rathaus von Thüringern? Ereignete sich das Rosenwunder der heiligen Elisabeth vielleicht auf dem Weißenseer Marktplatz?

Warum begrüßt ein Denkmal des Minnesängers Walter von der Vogelweide die Besucher der Stadt? Stammt das älteste Reinheitsgebot zum Brauen von Bier tatsächlich aus Thüringen? Wurde der prachtvolle Kirchenaltar der Jungfrau Maria nach der Reformation in der Stadtkirche tatsächlich gefälscht?  

Auf all diese Fragen warten spannende Antworten in Weißensee.  Es gibt kaum eine Stadt in Thüringer, in der die Zeit der Ludowinger Landgrafen noch heute so authentisch erlebbar ist. Hier wurde die erste Thüringer Landesverordnung – sie gilt heute als  Vorläufer heutiger Landesverfassungen  - verabschiedet und Melanchton kümmerte sich persönliche um reformatorische Kirchenfragen.  

Und selbst wenn es den Johanniterhof heute nicht mehr gibt – an seiner ursprünglichen Stelle lohnt sich heute der Besuch des Chinesischen „Garten des ewigen Glücks“ – dem größten chinesischen Flächengarten seiner Art in Deutschland.  

Sehenswert


Beichlingen Castle

For 1000 years, Beichlingen Castle has influenced the surrounding lands.

In the beginning there was a woman's theft...

More than 1000 years ago, in November of the year 1014, Beichlingen Castle came into the light of history, not in a document, but in connection with the description of an ultimately unsuccessful kidnapping of the then castle mistress Reinhilde.
The bishop Thietmar of Merseburg reports about it in his chronicle. (In 2005, the painter Christop Hodgson depicted the moment of Reinhilde's abduction in a mural that can be seen in the castle restaurant).

Frederick I founded the dynasty of the Counts of Beichlingen around 1140.
The Counts of Beichlingen were at the height of their power in the 12th/13th century and belonged to the most powerful dynasties in Thuringia.

After their decline in power in the 14th/15th century, the castle complex was sold in 1519 to the knight Hans von Werthern/Wiehe. From about 1530 to 1620 the lords of Werthern gradually redesigned the castle complex into a castle in the style of the late Renaissance.

Until 1945, the castle remained in the undisturbed possession of the lords and later counts of Werthern-Beichlingen and has been the ancestral seat of this dynasty since 1580.
After the expropriation of the counts in the course of the land reform in autumn 1945 and the transfer of the count's property to national ownership, the castle complex served as a home for various educational institutions from spring 1946 to 1992, the most important of which was the Engineering School for Veterinary Medicine (ISV).

In June 2001, the castle complex was transferred from state ownership to private ownership. Today, the importance of the castle is further developed in a combination of preferred regional cuisine, cultural offers and nature tourism, in close cooperation with partners in the region.

Association for the promotion of Beichlingen Castle e. V.

Castle hill 1,

99625 Beichlingen

City and culture church St. Peter and Paul in Weißensee

The town church of St. Peter and Paul stands at the highest point of the town. Built around 1180 as a three-nave basilica, it was also given a high Gothic choir in the course of various alterations in 1331. Its enormous dimensions can be explained by the active presence of the Order of St. John in the town. The patrocinium of St. Paul was only added in 1463.

In 1737 the baroque organ in the town church was given a new organ by Conrad Wilhelm Schäfer from Kindelbrück. The organ was tested - and this is historically documented - by Johann Sebastian Bach on 16 December 1737. A further test by Bach, at that time "Hochfürstlicher Capellmeister von Haus aus", took place on 21 July 1738.

The town church of St. Peter and Paul shines again in its medieval splendour. And so it is no wonder that the bones of "Good Conrad" were found there and also reburied. Conrad was the son of the burgomaster Berld von Sumerd. The 16-year-old is said to have been abducted to a vineyard hut in 1303, martyred there and then hanged by his own belt. After that, a persecution of the Jews began, during which about 125 people were murdered at Weissensee Castle. The "Good Conrad" was then venerated as a saint for about 200 years before he fell into oblivion again.

The altar of "Mary with the Beard" is particularly interesting. Before the Reformation, the gilded altarpiece showed the coronation of Mary by Jesus Christ. After the Reformation, Jesus was given a wooden beard and became God the Father and Marie was painted on beard and she was then crowned as Jesus Christ.