High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Saalfeld (German: Saalfeld/Saale) is a town of Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is situated on the left bank of the Saale River, some 50 km (31 mi) south of Weimar and 130 km (81 mi) south-west of Leipzig by road. Its population in 2003 was 28,393.Saalfeld is one of the most ancient towns in Thuringia. Once the capital of the extinct duchy of Saxe-Saalfeld, it was part of Saxe-Meiningen until 1918. The city is still partly surrounded by old walls and bastions, and contains some interesting medieval buildings, among them being a palace, built at the start of the early modern era in 1679 on the site of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter, which was destroyed during the Peasants' War (1525).