Breitenbach Castle

Breitenbach Castle is the ruin of a castle in the Breitenbach district of the municipality of Wetterzeube in the Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt.

The castle was built in the 12th century southwest of Zeitz. Breitenbach and the deserted castle Castro Breitenbuch were already mentioned in 1138 and were probably built into an older complex (from the 10th-11th century) by the Breitenbuch family and was their ancestral seat from the middle of the 12th century until the end of the 13th century. From the first half of the 13th century, the castle was owned by the Naumburg Hochstift, but changed hands several times between the bishop and the margraves of Meissen. In 1306, Margrave Dietrich transferred Breitenbach Castle to Count Simon von Stolberg, and around 1310, Albert Knut probably held it only briefly as a fief. The castle was presumably destroyed by two fires during the warlike conflicts of 1315. In 1317, Count Heinrich von Stolberg sold the castle to the Bishop of Naumburg. The Kempe (Kemenate) located directly next to the castle was built from its ruins in the middle of the 14th century.

A remnant of the residential tower of the former castle complex is still preserved.