Goseck was mentioned as “Gozacha civitas” in the Hersfeld tithe register as early as the 9th century.
Goseck Castle is one of the border castles on the Saale. The “castrum antiquissimum” was the ancestral home of the Counts Palatine of Saxony, who, with Frederick I around 1000, were first documented as the Goseck family of counts. Frederick I built a St. Simeon's Chapel next to the castle as a burial place for his family. The sons Adalbert, Dedo and Friedrich were not only important for Goseck. Adalbert (1000-1072) attended the cathedral school in Halberstadt and became canon there and provost in 1032. In 1043 he was appointed Archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen. On his behalf, missionaries reached as far as Iceland and Greenland. In 1060 he established the diocese of Ratzeburg and Mecklenburg. In 1041, Count Palatine Dedo founded a Benedictine monastery on the site of the old castle. His brother Friedrich II founded a provost's office in nearby Sulza. The sale of monastery property began as early as 1183, and in 1540 the monastery era ended with secularization. In 1548 it came into the possession of Georg von Altensee.
Through changing owners and extensive renovations in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially by the von Pöllnitz family, the former monastery complex acquired its Renaissance character. From 1840 to 1945, Goseck was owned by the Counts of Zech-Burkersroda. After 1945 the castle was a school and youth hostel. The facility has been owned by the foundation since 1997.
Today the “European Music and Cultural Center Goseck Castle” has its headquarters here, which was founded by Schloss Goseck e.V. in 1998. The top-class Gosecker Castle Concerts are primarily dedicated to early music and have a charisma that extends far beyond the borders of the Saale-Unstrut region.
The Gosecker local history and cultural association has lovingly set up a home parlor. It offers an insight into past living environments in the Saale Valley. Especially in the warm season, the castle courtyard with its famous 170-year-old ginkgo tree invites you to linger.
The oldest solar observatory, at 7,000 years old, is located very close to Goseck. It is a stop on the “Sky Ways” tourist route. There is an information center at the castle.