Weimar Castle

As early as the 6th century, a court of the Thuringian kings might have existed at this slightly elevated spot on the banks of the Ilm. However, the first documented event is a Conventus magnus under Emperor Otto II. in the “Hus tu Wymar,” hosted by Count Wilhelm of Weimar. From the 10th century, a moated castle, serving as the seat of the Counts of Orlamünde, was located here. After a fire in 1299, which destroyed the presumably wooden castle, ownership passed to the Wettins, who erected a new complex. Another fire in 1424 destroyed large parts of Weimar and the castle. Under Wilhelm the Brave, the castle was rebuilt as a stone structure and occupied in 1439. The Hausmannsturm and the gatehouse, later known as the “Bastille,” date from this period. With the division of Saxony in 1485, Weimar fell to the Ernestines, and the palace, now called Hornstein, became a secondary residence from 1513. From 1535, under Johann Friedrich I., it was transformed into a Renaissance palace complex, completed in 1604 with the Green House. A fire in 1618 destroyed half of the palace. Reconstruction under Giovanni Bonalino began in 1619, but the Thirty Years' War interrupted the work, so only the palace chapel, the “Himmelsburg,” was completed, where Johann Sebastian Bach later served as organist.