Weißensee (German for "white lake") is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the district of Sömmerda, 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 lar ...

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 6 km northwest of Sömmerda, and 25 km north of

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

. The former municipality Herrnschwende was merged into Weißensee in January 2019.

History

Weissensee is one of a very few towns which was actually planned in the Middle Ages. Founded in the second half of the 12th century by Jutta Claricia, Landgravine of

and sister of Emperor Frederick I, it gained market rights in 1198 and city rights in 1265. Due to its excellent strategic position between two lakes – from which the town takes its name – and a ridge of hills, Weissensee rapidly became a very important trade centre, especially for fish and

woad ''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from ...

. Some notable figures lived on the Runneburg and in 1446

William III, Landgrave of Thuringia William III (30 April 1425 – 17 September 1482), called the Brave (in German ''Wilhelm der Tapfere''), was landgrave of Thuringia (from 1445) and claimant duke of Luxemburg (from 1457). He is actually the second William to rule Thuringia, an ...

adopted the first Thuringian constitution. During the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

the town became less important and the two lakes were drained. But after the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

in 1814 it was awarded to

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

and underwent a revival as district capital. Weissensee is famous for its medieval castle, one of the largest in Thuringia, and for its annual ''Bierfest''.

References

Sömmerda (district) {{Sömmerda-geo-stub