Camburg Ruined Church of St. Cyriac @museum.de

This enchanted ruin on the slope above the Saale valley is like something straight out of a fairy tale.

The church is said to have been built here in 999 AD, possibly even earlier. It consisted of a nave with an adjoining presbytery and a rectangular sanctuary. Two low-ceilinged side rooms separated by arcades with round arches completed a ground plan in the shape of a cross.

The former parish church was abandoned in 1539, during the Reformation, and fell into disrepair. For centuries, local people treated the ruins like a stone quarry. As they dismantled the building, they came across two underground passages that were said to lead to Camburg and underneath the River Saale. And at some point, they started to tell each other the following story:

On the opposite bank of the Saale, there once lived a farmer who was wealthy but hard of heart. His son had fallen in love with a poor orphan, and to prevent their union, the farmer brought his son here, to the Monastery of St. Cyriac. But beneath a trapdoor, the young man discovered a passage that took him to freedom. Every evening, lantern in hand, he descended through the trapdoor and visited his secret lover. He made his way down to the Saale, crossed the river and returned a few hours later. But on one occasion, as he returned to the monastery, the trapdoor snapped shut and sliced off his hand along with the lantern. The next day, when the young man was discovered, he’d bled to death... but his hand and the lantern were missing.

Others claim that only the hand with the lantern was ever found. Be that as it may, since that time, a ghostly light has sometimes been observed at night, moving from the ruin of St. Cyriac down to the Saale, crossing the river and then vanishing.