The building which is also called Schloss Tonna was constructed as a castle by the counts of Gleichen and Tonna in 1200. It was a typical late Romanesque water castle with a moat around it. The castle formed a rectangle with a surface of 2604 square meters. After it burned down in 1375, it was reconstructed with contemporary stylistic elements. Till 1859, it served as headquarters for the judiciary department and was turned into a jail in 1861. The building had 282 solitary cells and reached a maximum of about 200 prisoners between 1933 and 1935. During the GDR political prisoners were held captive in the complex. In 1991 a new modern prison was finished in the city and the Kettenburg was abandoned. It was sold a couple of times in the following years after its abandonment and finally got in the hands of an American company with the name ‘ISAR LLC’ which lets it decay further. In the year 2020 a club was founded which deals with monument protection and the history of the former castle.
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