Schloss Friedeburg

Gerbstedt, Germany, Germany

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Schloss Friedeburg in Friedeburg, part of Gerbstedt in Saxony-Anhalt's Mansfeld-Südharz district, Germany, evolved from a medieval hilltop castle built before 1189, first mentioned when Ulrich von Polleben acquired it through marriage and passed it to the Counts of Mansfeld's Friedeburg line.

By 1280, the Bishop of Halberstadt enfeoffed it to the Edlen von Hadmersleben, who became known as the Counts of Friedeberg, with ownership shifting to the Archbishopric of Magdeburg in 1316; it suffered devastation in 1630 during the Thirty Years' War, stood uninhabited by 1642, and was partially rebuilt by estate managers by 1670.

The poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock spent part of his childhood there from 1732 to 1736 when his father and uncle leased the estate; featuring a two-story main building with bay windows, rectangular windows, and a simple tiled roof around inner and outer courtyards in a triangular layout, it remains a protected cultural monument overlooking the Saale River valley.