Naumburg

Naumburg grew at the meeting of the Via Regia and the road to Regensburg. Its name recalls the new castle of the Ekkeharding margraves of Meissen, recorded in 1012. In 1028 the bishopric was moved here from Zeitz. A cathedral and school followed, while the town's fairs, recorded from 1278, made it an important regional centre of trade.

Leipzig's rising fairs and the Thirty Years' War weakened Naumburg's commerce. The Reformation ended the Catholic bishopric, and in 1561 an assembly at Naumburg affirmed the Augsburg Confession. From 1657 the district belonged to the Saxon branch of Saxe-Zeitz, whose rulers initially used the town castle as a residence. It returned to the main Saxon line in 1718 and passed to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna in 1815.