Camburg is a town in the
Saale-Holzland
Saale-Holzland (official German language, German name: Saale-Holzland-Kreis) is a ''Kreis'' (Districts of Germany, district) in the east of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) the district Burgenlandkreis in Sa ...
district, in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
,
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 ...
. It is situated 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 Fränkische Saale, ...
, 18 km northeast of
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...
, and 13 km southwest of
Naumburg
Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...
. Since 1 December 2008, it is part of the town
Dornburg-Camburg
Dornburg-Camburg is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It was created on 1 December 2008, when the towns Dornburg and Camburg and the municipality Dorndorf-Steudnitz were merged.
History
Within the German Empire (1871 ...
.
The first mention of Camburg dates from 1088, and during the Middle Ages the Burg was a residence of the
Wettiner family. Camburg castle controls a crossing of the Saale which was an important trade route for salt being carried from Bad Sulza towards the south east.
The valley of the Saale cuts through
Muschelkalk
The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; french: calcaire coquillier) is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million ye ...
cliffs, in which a hermit's cave, the Klausloch, can still be seen to the north east of the town. Across the river, the ruins of St Cyriak's church date from around AD 1000.
Camburg's Museum in Amtshof 1–2 has exhibits from pre-historic to recent times, including a working example of a Spieluhr.
Geography of Thuringia
Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
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