Goseck is a municipality lying on the river Saale, in the Burgenlandkreis district of the Germany state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Geography
Goseck is located on the north bank of the Saale, about halfway between
Naumburg and Weißenfels.
The municipality consists of the settlements Goseck and Markröhlitz.
History
Early period
The first evidence of human settlement is from the
Neolithic period, the
Goseck circle, dating to approximately the 5th millennium BC, discovered by aerial photographs from the 1990s and, since 2003, regarded as the oldest
observatory in
Europe. It consists of a circular
Henge with a diameter of 75 m. It marks the beginning of a millennia-old astronomical tradition known also from the
Nebra skydisk, discovered in 1999, only 25 km distant therefrom. By means of a visor mechanism, the operators were able to,
e.g., accurately determine the times of the summer and winter
solstice. The reconstructed observatory was opened on the winter solstice, 21 December 2005, with great pageantry, including a spectacular
fireworks.
Modern times
Goseck grew in the fields surrounding the 11th-century monastery St. Mary and St. Michael. Originally an early medieval castle, first mentioned as
Gozzesburg in the
Hersfeld Tithe Register of 881, the
Saxony palatial county seat of government was located here.
Economics and infrastructure
Traffic
The only road access to Goseck is from Markröhlitz, from which local roads lead to Naumburg, Weißenfels and Pettstädt.
