Heldburg Fortress

German Castle Museum

In the far south of Thuringia, Veste Heldburg, also known as the "Franconian lighthouse", rises above the landscape and can be seen from afar. The Counts of Henneberg used it as an official seat due to its strategically extraordinarily favorable location. Later, it belonged to the dukes of Saxe-Meiningen.

History of Veste Heldburg

The commander's building with Hausmann tower, located in the far west of the complex, documents the medieval use of the fortress but was modified in the 16th century. The adjoining Jungfernbau (maiden building) houses the castle chapel, whose wall paintings from the beginning of the 16th century may be created by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

After the castle fell to the Ernestine line of the Wettins, it initially served as a Protestant outpost in the battles of the Reformation period. In the 16th century, the conversion into a mountain castle began. First, the Heidenbau (Heathen Building) was erected, to which the French Building, designed by the Ernestine land architect Nickel Gromann, was later added. With the two oriels on its courtyard side, elaborately decorated with relief ornaments, and the spiral staircase with the portal, it is the main representative building of Veste Heldburg.

In the 19th century, the new owners, the dukes of Saxe-Meiningen, endeavored to preserve the castle. Georg II, in particular, used it as a retreat with his third, bourgeois wife, to whom he bestowed with the title of Baroness of Heldburg. Numerous historicizing modifications and additions to the interior frunishings, such as the neo-Gothic Baroness Bower, date from this period. Outside, the duke had the Hausmann tower, among other things, added and a terrace with a battlement crown built.

Read more ...