Saalfeld-Rudolstadt

The Schwarza is a left tributary of the Saale in Thuringia, Germany. The Schwarza is 53 km (33 mi) long. Its source is in the Thuringian Forest, near Neuhaus am Rennweg. It flows into the Saale in Rudolstadt. Other towns on the Schwarza are Schwarzburg and Bad Blankenburg. It has 50 tributaries, the largest being the Lichte, the Sorbitz, the Werre and the Rinne. Its name, meaning "black river", comes from its dark colour in its upper course and the thick forest which originally overshadowed the narrow valley. The Schwarza valley (German: Schwarzatal) parallels the axis of the Schwarzburg anticline (Schwarzburger Sattel), a structure that divides the Thuringian forest to the northwest from the Thuringian Highland to the southeast. The Schwarzburg Anticline was created by the collision between Laurentia and Gondwana around 350 million years ago. The rock of the Schwarzburg Anticline is metamorphic, with a core of ordovician rock, largely quartzite. The river is geologically unusual for the large number of kolks in its lower course. The Schwarza river is the richest in gold in Germany, and its valley has been known for its deposits of placer gold since the 12th century. In 1442, the rights to the gold deposits of the Schwarza valley were granted to the Counts of Schwarzburg. Recreational placer miners continue to find occasional gold nuggets in the Schwarza to this day.

Saalfeld Abbey (German: Abtei Saalfeld, also Kloster Saalfeld) was an important medieval Benedictine monastery and Imperial Abbey in Saalfeld, Thuringia, Germany. As an imperial abbey, the monastery was under the direct auspices of the Holy Roman Emperor, and enjoyed a degree of sovereignty equivalent to a small micro state within the Empire. The monastery was founded in 1071 and existed until 1526, when it was secularised during the Reformation.

The Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes (in German: Saalfelder Feengrotten) are caverns or grottoes of a former mine near Saalfeld, in the German state of Thuringia.They have long been famous for their countless colorful mineral formations (speleothems) formed over many years by water dripping through relatively soft rock. Since 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records has termed the Feengrotten "the most colorful cave grottoes in the world".

Saalfeld (German: Saalfeld/Saale) is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the Saxon House of Wettin, which was renamed the House of Windsor during their British reign in 1917.

The Kulm is a hill, 481.9 m above sea level (NHN), near Saalfeld in the German state of Thuringia. It lies east of the Saale valley at the western tip of the Saale 'Knee' and is the local hill of the towns of Saalfeld and Rudolstadt. From the Kulm there is a panoramic view over the valleys of the Saale and Rinne, the Orla Basin, the Thuringian Highland and the Ilm-Saale Plateau. Near the Kulm are the villages of Schloßkulm and Dorfkulm, which belong to the municipalities of Uhlstädt-Kirchhasel and Unterwellenborn respectively.

Rudolstadt is a town in the German federal state Thuringia, with the Thuringian Forest to the southwest, and to Jena and Weimar to the north. The former capital of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, the town is built along the River Saale inside a wide valley surrounded by woods. Rudolstadt was founded in 776 and has had municipal law since 1326. The town's landmark is the Castle Heidecksburg which is enthroned on a hill above the old town. The former municipality Remda-Teichel was merged into Rudolstadt in January 2019. Rudolstadt was once well known because of the Anchor Stone Blocks of the Toy Company Richter and porcelain factories, beginning with the establishment of the Volkstedt porcelain manufacture in 1762.

Saalfeld station (called Saalfeld (Saale) or Saalfeld (S) by Deutsche Bahn) is the station in the city of Saalfeld in the southeast of the German state of Thuringia. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station.

Rudolstadt (Thür) station (German: Bahnhof Rudolstadt (Thür)) is a railway station in the municipality of Rudolstadt, located in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district in Thuringia, Germany.

Heidecksburg is a Baroque palace in Rudolstadt, Thuringia, and served as the residence of the princes to Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. It is located prominently approximately 60 m above the old town. After a fire in 1735 and its reconstruction, it has remained intact, including during World War II.

Rinne, also Königseer Rinne, is a river of Thuringia, Germany. It flows into the Schwarza in Bad Blankenburg.

Bad Blankenburg (German pronunciation: [bat ˈblaŋkənbʊʁk] ) is a spa town in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 6 km southwest of Rudolstadt, and 37 km southeast of Erfurt. It is most famous for being the location of the first kindergarten of Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel, in 1837. To the north of it, on an eminence, rise the fine ruins of the castle of Greifenstein, built by the German king Henry I, and from 1275 to 1583 the seat of a cadet branch of the counts of Schwarzburg.In the nineteenth century, Bad Blankenburg was part of the small principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Bad Blankenburg is the headquarters of Deutsche Evangelische Allianz, a cooperative network of most Protestant churches in Germany. The main sights of Bad Blankenburg on OpenstreetMap.

Kaulsdorf is a municipality in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany.