An untouched landscape with vineyards, steep terraces, centuries-old dry stone walls, romantic vineyard cottages and picturesque river valleys characterize the Saale-Unstrut quality wine-growing region, which covers around 768 hectares.

Bad Sulza is the gateway to Germany’s northernmost quality wine-growing region. The area is located at 51 degrees north latitude – “close to the Arctic Circle”, as mockers like to say. However, nature provides the region with extended growing seasons. In addition to the shell limestone soils, which store the warmth of the sun particularly well and also give the wine a very special note and taste, a balanced mix of warmth and coolness also ensures delicate and lively wines.

Even though there is evidence that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once studied the brine deposits and their use here, nothing is known about whether he enjoyed a glass of the local wine in Bad Sulza at a late or early hour during his stay with us. It is doubtful that his world-famous quote: “Life is too short to drink bad wine” could have been made in connection with Thuringian wine – at least when one considers the quality of the wines of today.

Bad Sulza lives from, with and for wine – and you can see this on every corner. Be it quite obviously at the Thuringian Wine Gate, at the “Old Grape Varieties” show vineyard at the tourist information office or a little more hidden with a view that you can catch of the old town vineyards if you look between the rows of houses. Of course, we also celebrate wine – Bad Sulzaer Weinfrühling, Thuringian Wine Festival, Federweißerfest, Open Wine Cellar Days,… Guests are always welcome!

Bad Sulza’s wine tradition is a testament to over 800 years of taste. There is evidence that viticulture has been practiced here since 1195. A document from this year testifies that the abbess of Quedlinburg acquired a vineyard in the village. It was a constant up and down and the winegrowers had more or less success over the centuries. In the 16th century, there were over 60 vineyards in Sulza and in the Ratskeller alone, the Salzkärrner – carters who transported evaporated salt – drank more than 34,000 liters of wine. The Thirty Years’ War in turn has a negative impact on viticulture. And the improvement of beer later led to wine growing losing some of its importance. Winegrowers had to cope with the most severe setback in the mid to late 19th century when phylloxera, introduced from the USA, destroyed almost all the vines.

Although there was a tentative revival at the beginning to middle of the 20th century, it was more a case of amateur viticulture. In 1954, for example, vines were still being grown on just 3 hectares in Thuringia, i.e. on just over four football pitches.

It was only after the end of the GDR that viticulture in Thuringia began to pick up again. The first Thuringian winery was founded in 1992 and the 1st Bad Sulza Wine Festival took place in 1993.

Today, Bad Sulza is one of the wine strongholds of the Saale-Unstrut region.

…the salt in the soup… that was extracted in Bad Sulza many years ago and for a very long time.
If you look at old drawings and maps, you can see that in Sulza there were countless places where people dug and drilled for brine.
The earliest written records of salt evaporation in the town date back to 1064.
In that year, King Henry IV granted the local ruler, Count Palatine Frederick of Saxony, the right to produce salt.

Over the centuries of the history of salt evaporation, attempts to extract this ‘white gold’ have been more or less successful.
Thanks to technical advances and the expertise of Baron von Beust, a Europe-wide expert in the field of salt evaporation, the Sulza salt works flourished.
Until 1967, Bad Sulza still produced table salt, which was even exported as far as Scandinavia.
Today, numerous buildings and sites still bear witness to this period – so numerous, in fact, that their number here is probably unique.

Centuries ago, medical practitioners already recognised that natural brine is also good for health.
Saltworks workers were also far less likely to suffer from respiratory diseases.
And so, it was only a matter of time before many salt works also developed into health resorts.
This was also the case in Bad Sulza.
And it is said that this development can be traced back to the poet laureate Johann Wolfgang von Goethe himself.