Burgscheiden Castle

Burgscheiden Castle is a baroque castle in the Burgenlandkreis district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The complex, which is located high above the Unstrut, dates back to a castle probably founded in the 8th century. The castle and the castle garden are now part of the Saxony-Anhalt Garden Dreams project.
The Saxon historian Widukind von Corvey states in his Saxon history written in the 960s that the Thuringians under their king Herminafried were defeated by the Franks in a battle "in a castle called Scithingi, which lies above a river called Unstrut". This location appears here for the first time in written sources, more than 400 years after the events. There is an almost contemporary source on the fall of the Thuringian kingdom in the Decem libri historiarum, written by Gregory of Tours in the late 6th century. In this, the decisive battle, which took place in 531 AD, is generally located on the Unstrut without further location. Presumably, Widukind wanted to locate this information more precisely and connected this message with an important castle on the Unstrut that was undoubtedly known to him. For over 1000 years, this information has now been continued and has almost become a historical certainty. It was not until the second half of the 20th century that modern historical scholarship and especially archaeology began to have strong doubts about the location of the Battle of Widukind. During archaeological excavations on the castle hill by the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle under the direction of Berthold Schmidt between 1960 and 1962, no finds and findings dating back to the Merovingian period were found. There are also no expected burial grounds with rich grave furnishings in the surrounding area for such a centre. Although there is hardly any knowledge from Central Germany about the location and shape of the royal residences of the Thuringians, the existence of such a royal court on or near the Burgscheiden castle hill is very unlikely.

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