Wysburg Castle

The castle was probably built in the 11th century. Rudolf von Habsburg had 66 robber baron castles destroyed in Thuringia in 1289/90. He had mercenaries set up a large catapult (trebuchet) about 300 meters west of the castle on the opposite Neuenbeuthener Höhe. The projectiles hurled from there across the Umschützbach valley were brought from the Orlatal, about 20 kilometers away, and consisted of Zechstein dolomite. They weighed up to 81 kilograms. The castle was razed after its capture.

After the castle's decay, the area served as a quarry for the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, causing the ruin to lose much of its substance: hardly any masonry was visible above ground.

In the first third of the 20th century, various surveying works and small-scale excavations took place. In 1985, the former Museum for Prehistory and Early History of Thuringia, under the direction of Hubert Roßbach (now district monument conservator), carried out the first scientifically sound excavations. The walls were gradually rebuilt to a certain height, with the original height marked by red bricks. So far, the outbuildings of the outer bailey with a bakery, outer walls, keep, palas, residential tower, rampart-ditch system, gate complex, and cistern system have been uncovered. The rock basin holds about 350,000 liters of water and has a diameter of 7.50 meters at a depth of 8 meters.

In Weisbach, a permanent exhibition was opened in the Wysburg-Haus in 1989. The finds recovered during the archaeological excavations (ceramic vessels and iron everyday objects) are displayed. The original appearance of the castle is explained using maps and models.