Mittelalter entdecken

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

Inmitten des Ortes Teutleben steht die älteste Kirche der Landgemeinde. Der gut erhaltene romanische Baustil schließt auf eine Errichtung im 12. Jahrhundert.

"ANNO 1586 DEN 9. JULI" ziert den aus einem Stück gefertigte Taufstein. Doch einzigartig in Thüringen ist der Gipsestrich mit Modellprägung auf der Empore, vermutlich stammen diese noch aus der Erbauungszeit. Pflanzliche und tierische Muster dekorieren die Steinempore. Letztmalig wurde der hölzerne Altar im Jahr 1858 bemalt.

Elemente aus Romantik, Spätgotik und Barock schmücken das Erscheinungsbild der Teutlebener Kirche.

The houses of Rastenberg had clustered around the castle mound and the inhabitants had sought shelter. The discovery of sherds confirmed the assumption of a prehistoric rampart castle at this location.

The construction of the Raspenburg on the castle hill probably dates back to the years 1070-1078. There is only contradictory information about the history of the castle from the first decades. It remains open that the builders of the castle were the sons of Ludwig the Bearded, Ludwig the Knight or his brother Heinrich Raspe (i.e. the Rough). The owners of Raspenburg are attested from the year 1252. In the first written testimony about Rastenberg, from this year, two brothers "Heinrich and Albert von Raspenberck" are mentioned.

The castle was located near the "Via Regia", the trade route Erfurt-Naumburg, and in the course of time degenerated into a nasty robber baron's nest. It was therefore destroyed in 1321 by Landgrave Friedrich (the bitten) with the help of the merchants of Mühlhausen and Erfurt.

Today, only a remnant of the keep can be seen. It measures 32 m in circumference and has a 2.5 m thick wall.

Noch heute zeugt ein Teilstück der Burgruine vom Burgleben des 12. Jahrhunderts. Nicht zu vergessen sind die Erzählungen über zwei Raubritter stammend von der Burg von Teutleben. Unzählige Kaufmannswagen fielen den Brüdern auf der vorbeiführenden Handelsstraße zum Opfer, bis sie eines Tages mithilfe einer List zur Strecke gebracht wurden.

The Nikolai Church dates back to the first half of the 11th century and is barely 29 metres long. The nave of the church has a large Romanesque arch on the west side. A round apse with a diameter of 6.8 metres adjoins the choir. A few slender pointed arches indicate some structural changes that took place in the Gothic period. Originally, the church also had a tower on the west side, but it was taken down when stones were needed for the reconstruction of the town church of St. Peter and Paul. Inside, a freestanding sacrament box from around 1500 deserves special attention. In its kind it represents a rarity in the Thuringian and Saxon area. Apart from this sacramental hut, the upper part of a baptismal font from the transitional period from Romanesque to Gothic has been preserved. The octagonal cup shape already corresponds to the Gothic period, while the main cornice with the round arch frieze can be assigned to the Romanesque period. St. Nikolai was once the church of a first settlement at the foot of the castle and on the shore of the White Lake. It retained its parish rights until 1539 and then almost fell into oblivion due to misuse. It was only in the 1920s that it was rediscovered and restored in 1934. It is surrounded by spacious church grounds, bordered by a wall with a late Gothic gate.

The Weissensee Castle of the same name - also known as the Runneburg - rises proudly above the small town of Weissensee. Built by the landgravine Jutta around 1170, today it is one of the most important examples of Romanesque architecture in Germany. Hardly any other castle has preserved as much original building fabric from the High Middle Ages as this one. The castle is considered one of the most important Romanesque secular buildings in Germany. At a strategically important location halfway between Wartburg and Neuenburg castles near Freyburg, Weißensee became a mainstay of landgravial territorial policy. The complex is surrounded by a ring wall up to 7m high. The highlights of the medieval architecture are the palace and the five-storey palace tower belonging to it. The tower contains remarkable evidence of medieval stonemasonry, including a branch column with a capital made of vines.

In 1998, historian Michael Kirchschlager discovered the Weissensee Purity Law of 1434 for brewing beer in the historical archives.

Planned as a hostel, the castle soon became a fortification. Later, the castle-like converted fortified annexe served as a hunting lodge, official and district administration and also as a primary school.

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.

In 1989, in the course of building ground investigations in the core area of Weissensee Castle, a previously unknown well was discovered. The excavation of the 27-meter-deep shaft, which took several months and was scientifically documented, revealed a wide variety of lost or disposed of remains from the last 700 years, especially from the Renaissance and the High Middle Ages. The well had been developed to a depth of 24 meters with ashlars, and widened below in the gypsum rock without development. The oldest of these findings date back to the 13th century. Parts of them are shown in this exhibition. The well is best dated by the contents of the leather belt pouch, which includes bracteates (coins minted on one side) minted between 1235 and 1250 in Pegau near Leipzig. Together with the other finds from the layers near the bottom of the well, a commissioning in the first half of the 13th century can be assumed. In comparison with representations of everyday objects in the illustrations of the "Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift" surprising similarities with the finds of the Runneburg well become apparent. The pieces exhibited here are of the highest cultural-historical value, as they belong to the very few material testimonies of their kind from the High Middle Ages.

Das romanische Rathaus der Stadt Weißensee ist das älteste Rathaus Thüringens und eines der ältesten in Deutschland. 1351 erstmals erwähnt, steht es jedoch schon wesentlich länger. Die Substanz eines repräsentativen romanischen Steinhauses um 1200, das dem Marktmeister als Wohn- und Amtssitz diente, ist heute noch zwischen den Erweiterungsbauten des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts zu sehen.

Voraussetzung für das Werden Weißensees zur Stadt war die Verleihung eines Marktrechts. Die Nennung eines Marktmeisters für das Jahr 1198 belegt das Walten eines solchen Beamten auf dem Weißenseer Markt. Von diesem Marktmeister hat sich auch das wohl älteste Siegel einer ludowingischen Stadt in Thüringen erhalten.

Im romantischen Festsaal des Rathauses erfreuen sich seit über 400 Jahren Trauungen großer Beliebtheit.