The Osterburg () is a castle located conspicuously on a hill in the middle of the town of Weida in the county of

Greiz Greiz () is a town in the state of Thuringia, Germany, and is the capital of the district of Greiz. Greiz is situated in eastern Thuringia, east of state capital Jena, on the river '' White Elster''. Greiz has a large park in its center (Fürs ...

in the German state of

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 ...

Description

Its 54-metre-high

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 ...

is the third highest and one of the oldest surviving bergfrieds in Germany. Above its second array of battlements there is a watchman's parlour, which accommodated a watchman until 1917. On the

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

there is a monument which records that this was the furthest south that the ice sheet came in Germany during the

Elster glaciation The Elster glaciation (german: Elster-Kaltzeit, ''Elster-Glazial'' or ''Elster-Zeit'') or, less commonly, the Elsterian glaciation, in the older and popular scientific literature also called the Elster Ice Age (''Elster-Eiszeit''), is the oldest k ...

Gallery

Osterburg 2009.JPG Burgturm Osterburg Weida nachts.jpg Osterburg Weida 5.jpg Fotothek df ps 0006005 Burgen ^ Sonstiges.jpg Fotothek df ps 0006012 Burgen ^ Sonstiges.jpg

Sources

* Henriette Joseph, Haik Thomas Porada (eds.): ''Das nördliche Vogtland um Greiz.'' (Landschaften in Deutschland Werte der deutschen Heimat, Vol. 68). Böhlau, Cologne etc., 2006, . * Rosemarie Bimek, Heinz Fischer, Roland Gehring, Dr. Egbert Richter, Kurt Häßner, Dieter Hauer, Günter Kummer: ''800 Jahre Osterburg, Weida in Thüringen''. Stadtverwaltung Weida in Thüringen, Heimatmuseum Osterburg, Altenburg, 1993, pp. 1–52.

External links

The Osterburg at Weida (Weida town website)

Friends of the Osterburg Weida

Initiative to save the tower spire

Newspaper article about renovation work at the Osterburg, OTZ, 24 May 2011
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1193 Castles in Thuringia Museums in Thuringia Greiz (district)