Burgk Castle ( 1403) on the River

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale (german: Sächsische Saale) and Thuringian Saale (german: Thüringische Saale), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale ...

is a ''

schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...

'' and former castle in the county of

Saale-Orla-Kreis Saale-Orla is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) the districts Saale-Holzland, Greiz, the Vogtlandkreis in Saxony, the Bavarian districts Hof and Kronach, and the distri ...

in the Thuringian Highlands of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

which, today, houses a museum that portrays the princely lifestyle of years gone by. From the time of its construction in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

to 1945 it belonged to the House of Reuß. The ''schloss'' and village of

Burgk Burgk is a village and a former municipality in the district Saale-Orla-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany. Since December 2019, it is part of the town Schleiz Schleiz is a town in the district of Saale-Orla-Kreis in Thuringia, Germany. The forme ...

lie on an exposed site on a rock plateau above the village of Burgkhammer and the eponymous

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

on a bend in the Saale. It is nine kilometres from the A 9 motorway (Berlin–Munich).

Description

The well preserved ''schloss'' still has the character of a castle, with many medieval details. For example, the original ''

palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson ...

'' has survived in entirety, as has the ''

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under Germ ...

'' and both stone

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

s that lead to the inner ring and ''palas''. Formerly both bridges were drawbridges. On the outer bridge, below the ''Amtshaus'' ("district office"), a toll tariff board is displayed. In 2016, during the opening of a Baroque wall, a medieval parlour or ''Bohlenstube'' was found, dating to 1402. When, in 1739, the second

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mo ...

was demolished, a chamber and a dog were found. This was probably offered as a sacrifice during construction about 400 years ago and walled alive into the building. Today the

mummified A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

dog is displayed in the entrance behind a glass window. The castle chapel and kitchens are well preserved. Particularly notable is the kitchen chimney. At the western end of the site is the Red Tower (''Rote Turm'') with a

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...

top in the

Late Renaissance Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy ...

style. The entrance to the Red Tower is along a covered

chemin de ronde A ''chemin de ronde'' (French, "round path"' or "patrol path"; ), also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement. In early fortifications, high castle walls were difficul ...

, from which three others run along the walls. In the centre of the mid-18th century French-style park south of the ''schloss'' is the ''Sophienlust''

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

; a late Baroque/

Classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

style building.

Gallery

Schloss Burgk Torhaus.jpg, Gatehouse Schloss Burgk.JPG, Fortifications and the Red Tower Roter Turm Burgk.JPG, The Red Tower seen from the ''

zwinger "" () is a German word for outer ward or outer bailey. It represents an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. s were built in the post-classical and early modern periods to improve the defence ...

'' Torhaus mit Backofen.JPG, Gatehouse and baking oven Schloss Burgk Sophienhaus.jpg, ''Sophienlust'' Pavilion Schloss Burgk Sophien-Pavillon.jpg, Inside the Pavilion

External links

Website of the ''schloss''
* ,

docu-drama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typi ...

, four-part series by MDR, first broadcast: 12 December 2005, documented typical daily work in the year 1419 at Schloss Burgk under the most authentic conditions (archived)

References

{{Authority control Renaissance architecture in Germany

Castles in Thuringia Museums in Thuringia