Schlöben is a municipality in the Saale-Holzland district of Thuringia. The small village is framed by the plateau Wöllmisse of shell limestone in the north and the Valley villages the Rodaa tributary of the Saale, to the south. The charming surroundings between the mountain range and the valley villages bear witness to 7,000 years of settlement history and offer a good starting point for hikes and excursions in the surrounding area, e.g. to the Panorama Trail SaaleHorizontale, to the plateau Wöllmisse or the valley villages with their half-timbered houses and typical farm structures. The densely wooded Zeitzgrund in Thüringer Holzland east of Schlöben is pure relaxation in nature.

The main town of Schlöben was first mentioned at the end of the 12th century and is closely associated with the Barons of Hardenberg, a noble family from Lower Saxony. The early Romantic writer Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, better known today as Novalisspent several years as a child in what is now the bioenergy village and in Jena. The Novalisweg with its length of 15km connects the former vacation home of the family with the Romantic house in the university town Jena.