Goseck Castle

Goseck Castle is a medieval castle and later monastery complex in Goseck, Saxony-Anhalt. The castle is a stop on the Romanesque Road.

Castle

The predecessor to the castle was a fortress, first mentioned in the Hersfeld Tithe Register, which was compiled between 881 and 899. In 1041, the sons of Count Palatine Friedrich I, the later Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen and the Counts Palatine Dedo and Friedrich II, had the castle demolished and a Benedictine monastery erected, which was consecrated in 1053 by Adalbert of Bremen. The castle was the ancestral seat of the Saxon Counts Palatine.

Monastery and Manor

The monastery was secularized in 1540 as a result of the Reformation and converted into a manor. The main building was henceforth called a castle.

The municipality itself belonged to the Freyburg district of the Thuringian Circle of the Electorate of Saxony. The Goseck manor included the villages of Goseck, Dobichau, Kleingräfendorf, Pettstädt, parts of the villages of Markröhlitz and Eulau; Lobitzsch was incorporated.

The first documented owners of the manor are Georg von Altensee (also Altensehe) († 1565) and his brother Lamprecht von Altensee († 1581). In 1594, Franz von Königsmarck was enfeoffed with Goseck, whose wife Katharina née von Hoym married Chancellor Bernhard von Pölnitz after his death. Both were enfeoffed with Goseck in 1609. The conversion of the monastery church into a castle chapel dates to this period. Bernhard was succeeded by his sons Christian Julius († 1662) and Hans Christoph von Pöl(l)nitz († 1680).

In 1684, Amalie von Pöllnitz née von Hunigk, as a widow, administered the estate under the guardianship of her sons Christoph Bernhard and Christian Julius Heinrich. Since both sons were declared dead after a sea voyage in 1698, the estate passed to various heirs, from whom Goseck was transferred to the Senior Tax Councillor Gottfried Pfitzner († 1732). Further owners were his son Court Councillor Jakob Heinrich Pfitzner († 1737) and his grandson Gottfried Heinrich Pfitzner († 1758). After his early death, his mother Charlotte Sophie née Lampe († 1776) took over the estate, which she bequeathed to her son from her second marriage, Ludwig Wilhelm von Eckhardt.

From 1808, Carolina Christiane von Schönberg, née von Brandenstein, and her three siblings are documented as owners of Goseck. Goseck remained in the possession of the Barons von Brandenstein until 1840. Then Julius Graf von Zech-Burkersroda (1805–1872) acquired Goseck and Uichteritz.

20th Century

Goseck Castle remained in the possession of the Counts von Zech-Burkersroda family until their expropriation and expulsion by the Communists in 1945. Afterwards, it temporarily served as a granary and then became the "Arthur Weisbrodt" youth hostel with beds and a polytechnic secondary school. From 1989 to 1997, the primary school with after-school care was located in the administrator's building. The Foundation of Castles, Palaces and Gardens of Saxony-Anhalt took over the castle in 1997 and began preservation measures for the building's upkeep.

In the autumn of 1998, the Schloss Goseck e.V. association was founded in the vacant castle. The association is gradually establishing the European Music and Cultural Centre here and organizes concerts, predominantly of early music. There are guest rooms and a castle tavern. In 2006, information rooms about the Goseck Solar Observatory were opened.