Gelbes (Yellow) Castle

The Yellow Castle was built between 1702 and 1704 through the conversion of a 16th-century free house under the direction of court architect Johann Mützel. It served as a widow's residence for Duchess Charlotte Dorothea Sophie, wife of Duke Johann Ernst III of Saxe-Weimar. Johann Sebastian Bach gave music lessons here to Princes Johann Ernst IV and Ernst August I. Later, the writer August von Kotzebue spent his youth in this house. After the Duchess's death in 1738, the castle was used as an administration building and later as a residence for court officials. In 1774, the ducal chamber moved in and remained until 1848. From 1852, the Yellow Castle housed the third department for finance of the State Ministry. Following the establishment of the state of Thuringia in 1920, it became the seat of the Thuringian Ministry of Finance.