Kranichfeld
About Kranichfeld
A small town with two castles above it, which is one more than a place this size should have — and the reason is that Kranichfeld spent four and a half centuries divided between two lordships that did not like each other.
Sights in Kranichfeld
- Niederburg KranichfeldCastle
Schlossgasse 18, 99448 Kranichfeld
The lower of the town's two castles, first documented in 1147.
- Oberschloss KranichfeldCastle
Am Oberschloss 1 a, 99448 Kranichfeld
The upper of the town's two castles, and the reason it calls itself the two-castle town.
Kranichfeld in depth
Two castles frame the town
The Oberschloss and the Niederburg stand on either side of Kranichfeld and the town calls itself the two-castle town, which is fair. There were once two more: in the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Schleußenburg and the Enzenburg stood here as border fortifications against Slavic expansion eastwards. Four castles for one settlement in the Ilm valley says something about where the frontier ran.
First named in 1143
The place goes back to the Thuringian and Franconian settlement of the earlier Middle Ages and appears in a document for the first time in 1143 — two hundred and forty-four years after Weimar's own first mention, and long before either place was a town in law.
Sold in 1454, divided until 1912
In 1454/55 the burgraves of Kirchberg sold their joint holding of the Niederburg and the Oberschloss to the counts Reuß von Plauen and the counts of Gleichen-Blankenhain. That sale split the town in two, and the split held: a feudal double lordship that lasted until 1912, the upper part belonging to the duchy of Meiningen and the lower to the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar. Four and a half centuries of two administrations in one small place.
One town, at last, in 1651
Anna Sophia, countess of Schwarzburg, obtained town rights for both parts in 1651 — a single legal status for a place that still had two masters. The administrative community of Kranichfeld was formed on 1 January 1992, which is when the arrangement finally became simple.
What the town offers a visitor
The castles are the reason to come, and the town's own pitch is what surrounds them: cycling and walking paths through the upper Ilm valley, the Baumbachhaus, a falconry, and an open-air stage in the grounds of the Niederburg that has its own booking calendar. It is the quiet end of the valley that runs down to Weimar.
Questions visitors ask
- What is Kranichfeld known for?
- Kranichfeld is known as the two-castle town: the Oberschloss and the Niederburg stand on either side of it, the result of a double lordship that split the town from 1454/55 until 1912.
- Why does Kranichfeld have two castles?
- In 1454/55 the burgraves of Kirchberg sold their joint holding of the Niederburg and the Oberschloss to two different noble houses, splitting the town into an upper and a lower lordship that lasted until 1912 — Meiningen holding the upper half, Saxe-Weimar the lower.
- How old is Kranichfeld?
- Kranichfeld is first named in a document of 1143, though the settlement itself goes back to the earlier Thuringian and Franconian Middle Ages.
- What is there to see in Kranichfeld?
- The Oberschloss and the Niederburg, the Baumbachhaus, a falconry, and the Niederburg's open-air stage, set in the upper Ilm valley with cycling and walking paths through the surrounding country.
Quick Information
Southeast
Highlights & Attractions
Historical Significance
A double lordship from 1454/55 until 1912, with the upper half under Meiningen and the lower under Saxe-Weimar.
In the history of Kranichfeld
In Weimar's history
On 24 May 1941 the SS put fifty Buchenwald prisoners into a carriage shed at Kranichfeld to rebuild a castle it had bought — and the point of the work was an insurance claim.
The camp stood at the Oberschloss, and a plaque and small exhibition mark it today.
Stay and eat nearby
Where to eat
Ilmenauer Straße 12, Kranichfeld
On the Ilmenauer Straße, in the town below the two castles.
Im Dorfe 16, Nauendorf (Kranichfeld)
Nauendorf is a village of the town of Kranichfeld.
Interesting reads
Historical figures
1749–1832 • writer • statesman • naturalist
1759–1805 • writer • poet • historian
1739–1807 • duchess • regent • patron • composer
1883–1969 • architect • founder and director of the Bauhaus • teacher
Historic sites
Frauenplan 1, 99423 Weimar
Platz der Demokratie 1, 99423 Weimar
Stéphane-Hessel-Platz 1, 99423 Weimar
Buchenwald, 99427 Weimar