Untermaßfeld Castle

Maßfeld Castle was first demonstrably mentioned in the first half of the 14th century. A document from 1350 states that the Truchsess brothers opened a fortification to the Bishop of Würzburg. This confirmed mention dates from 1375. The fortress became the dower house of the Henneberg Countess Katharina in the 15th century. After the death of Count Georg Ernst von Henneberg, the Albertine and Ernestine lines (Saxe-Meiningen) divided the inheritance. During the Thirty Years' War, the complex was destroyed in 1646, later refortified, but then abandoned as a fortress.

Since 1813, the complex served as the central penal institution of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen; today it is a correctional facility. The occupancy rate, which had previously averaged 250 people, increased drastically during the National Socialist era: in 1935, 551 prisoners were counted. In 1936, an extension and the construction of outbuildings took place, so that during the war years over 1500 people, including a large number of forced laborers, were incarcerated. A burial ground in the cemetery commemorates 51 deceased prisoners. For 49 political prisoners of Soviet military justice who died of hunger and disease in Untermaßfeld between 1950 and 1952, there is a memorial stone in the Meiningen Park Cemetery.