Wartburg The Wartburg is a castle situated on a 1230 - foot ( 410 - m ) precipice to the southwest of , and overlooking the town of Eisenach , in the state of Thuringia , Germany . In 1999 UNESCO added Wartburg Castle to the World Heritage List as an " Outstanding Monument of the Feudal Period in Central Europe " , citing its " Cultural Values of Universal Significance " . History . The castle ' s foundation was laid about 1068 by the Thuringian count of Schauenburg , Louis the Springer , a relative of the Counts of Rieneck in Franconia . Together with its larger sister castle Neuenburg in the present - day town of Freyburg , the Wartburg secured the extreme borders of his traditional territories . According to tradition , the castle ( " Burg " ) got its name when its founder first laid eyes on the hill upon which the castle now sits ; enchanted by the site , he is supposed to have exclaimed , " " Warte , Berg - - du sollst mir eine Burg tragen ! " " ( " Wait , mountain - - you shall bear a castle for me ! " ) . It is a German play on words for mountain ( " Berg " ) and fortress ( " Burg " ) . In addition , Louis the Springer is said to have had clay from his lands transported to the top of the hill , which was not quite within his lands , so he might swear that the castle was built on his soil . In fact , the name probably derives from , a kind of watchtower as stated in the above source . The castle was first mentioned during the Investiture Controversy in a 1080 deed , when Louis ' s henchmen attacked a military contingent of King Henry IV of Germany . The count remained a fierce opponent of the Salian rulers , and upon the extinction of the line , his son Louis I was elevated to the rank of a Landgrave in Thuringia by the new German king Lothair of Supplinburg in 1131 . The Wartburg remained the seat of the Thuringian landgraves until 1440 , and as a place of courtly culture it became around 1207 the venue of the " Sängerkrieg " , the Minstrels ' Contest in which such " Minnesänger " as Walther von der Vogelweide , Wolfram von Eschenbach , Albrecht von Halberstadt ( the translator of Ovid ) and many others took part . The contest was later to be treated with poetic licence in Richard Wagner ' s opera Tannhäuser . At the age of four , St . Elisabeth of Hungary was sent by her mother to the Wartburg to be raised to become consort of Ludwig IV of Thuringia . From 1211 to 1228 , she lived there and was renowned for her charitable work . Three years after moving to Marburg upon the death of her husband , she died at the age of 24 and was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church . From May 1521 to March 1522 , Martin Luther stayed at the castle , after he had been taken there for his safety at the request of Frederick the Wise following his excommunication by Pope Leo X and his refusal to recant at the Diet of Worms . It was during this period that Luther , under the name of Junker Jörg ( the Knight George ) , translated the New Testament into German . Luther ' s was not the first German translation of the Bible but it quickly became the most well known and most widely circulated . From 1540 until his death in 1548 , Fritz Erbe , an Anabaptist farmer from Herda , was held captive in the dungeon of the south tower , because he refused to abjure anabaptism . After his death , he was buried in the Wartburg near the chapel of St . Elisabeth . In 1925 a handwritten signature of Fritz Erbe was found on the prison wall . On 18 October 1817 , the first Wartburg festival took place . About 450 students , members of the newly founded German Burschenschaft en ( " fraternities " ) , came together at the castle to celebrate the German victory over Napoleon four years before , condemn conservatism and call for German unity . Speakers at the event included Heinrich Hermann Riemann , a veteran of the Lützow Free Corps , the philosophy student Ludwig Rödiger , and Hans Ferdinand Massmann . With the permission of the absent chaplain Friedrich Ludwig Jahn , the Code Napoléon and other books were burned ' in effigy ' : instead of the costly volumes , scraps of parchment with the titles of conservative books ( including August von Kotzebue ' s " History of the German Empires " ) were placed on the bonfire . Karl Ludwig Sand , who would assassinate Kotzebue two years later , was among the participants . This event and the similar gathering at Wartburg during the Revolutions of 1848 are considered seminal moments in the movement for German unification . The buildings . The castle has been renovated throughout its existence with many earlier parts being overbuilt by later constructions and additions . From 1952 to 1966 , for example , the East German Government restored it to what it looked like in the 16th century , which included the Luther Room ( right ) with its original floor and paneled walls . The Romanesque " Palas " ( " Landgrafenhaus " or Great Hall ) is the oldest and architecturally most impressive of the buildings . Besides the chapel , it contains the Sängersaal ( Hall of the Minstrels ) , which is in fact Wagner ' s setting for Act II of " Tannhäuser " and the Festsaal ( the Feast or Festival Hall ) , both of which contain fine frescoes by Moritz von Schwind with the theme of the minstrel s ' contest in the " Sängersaal " and frescoes of the triumphs of Christianity in the " Festsaal " . Part of the Palace consists of the original castle as it was between 1157 and 1170 , as an image of power and residence of the Thuringian landgraves . The castle gate behind the drawbridge is the only access to the Castle , and it has remained exactly as it was throughout the centuries . The Knights ' House on the western side of the drawbridge is half - timbered , and dates back to the 15th century . It probably served as a hall of residence for the servants and guards . There are two towers , the South Tower ( the only tower preserved of the medieval castle , having been erected in 1318 and which has the dungeon ; and the bergfried ( finished in 1859 , partially incorporating the foundations of its medieval predecessor , and which has the landmark four - meter Latin cross at its top . Other features include the " Vogtei " ( the Bailiff ' s Lodge ) in which the " Luther Room " is situated and to which a 15th - century oriel was attached in 1872 ; two covered walks , the Elisabeth and the Margaret Hallways , which form part of the 15th - century defence ring and whose projecting beams are supported by wooden consoles ; and the New Bower ( the " Kemenate " or Women ' s Chamber ) which contains the Wartburg collection . The " Rüstkammer " ( the armoury ) of the Wartburg , used to contain a magnificent collection of about 800 pieces , from the splendid armour of King Henry II of France , to the items of Frederick the Wise , Pope Julius II and Bernhard von Weimar . All these objects were taken by the Soviet Occupation Army in 1946 and have disappeared in the Soviet Union . Two helmet s , two sword s , a prince ' s and a boy ' s armour , however , were found in a temporary store at the time and a few pieces were given back by the USSR in the 1960s . The new Russian Government has been petitioned to help locate the missing treasure s . Legacy . For centuries , the Wartburg has been a place of pilgrimage for many people from within and outside Germany , for its significance in German history and in the development of Christianity . Several places ( especially US towns founded by Lutherans ) and a local brand of automobile have been named after the Wartburg . Wartburg College in Iowa , USA , is named in commemoration of Martin Luther ' s receiving refuge at the castle and because of the college ' s forest location and its Thuringian heritage .