Germany · Thuringia · Jena
Burgau, Jena — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Burgau is a Stadtteil in the south of Jena, named for a castle the lords of Lobdeburg founded in the Saale meadows about 1140.
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Where to stay in Burgau
The practical side of choosing where to sleep.
It sits between the river and the old town of Lobeda. Burgau lies south of the Jena centre, west of the Bundesstraße 88 and the Saale and west of the Lobeda Altstadt, which puts it on the quiet side of both. The castle ruin is the fixed point.
Burgruine Burgau stands in the middle of the Saale meadows close to the Stadtteil and is what the whole place is named after. Jena proper is a short run north.
About Burgau
What are the main landmarks in Burgau?
One ruin carries the name and the history. Burgruine Burgau stands amid the Saale meadows near the Stadtteil, founded by the lords of Lobdeburg about 1140 and in Wettin hands by the beginning of the 14th century. The river is the other feature.
Saale runs along the eastern side with the Bundesstraße 88 beside it, and the meadows between are what the castle was built into. Lobeda's old town adjoins. It lies immediately east of Burgau across that ground.
What is the history of Burgau?
A castle came first and the name followed. The lords of Lobdeburg founded one in the middle of the Saale meadows near what is now the Jena Stadtteil about 1140, and Burgau takes its name from it. Ownership changed at the start of the 14th century.
The castle passed into Wettin possession then, which is the point at which the local lordship gave way to the ruling house of the region. What stands now is a ruin. Burgruine Burgau is what survives of the founding structure, and it remains the reference point for the Stadtteil that grew nearby.
The village kept the river's edge. Burgau lies west of the Saale and the Bundesstraße 88 and west of the Lobeda Altstadt, on the meadow ground the castle was set into.
Where is Burgau?
Burgau lies south of the Jena centre, west of the Bundesstraße 88 and the Saale and west of the Lobeda Altstadt, on the meadow ground around the Burgau castle ruin.
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Another area in Jena
Updated September 2026