Historic Cemetery & Ducal Vault
About This Site
Consecrated in 1818 as the successor to the Jakobsfriedhof, and laid out on a strict frame of intersecting avenues that divide it into four burial quarters. UNESCO added it, with the ducal vault, to the Classical Weimar ensemble in 1998.
The cemetery that replaced the other one, 1818–1827
Weimar's older burial ground was the Jakobsfriedhof, and this one succeeded it in 1818.[1] Schiller was buried in a vault on the old churchyard in 1805,[2] thirteen years before this cemetery existed, and was brought here in 1827[3] — moved not to a better grave so much as to a newer institution, one built with a geometry, four quarters and avenues, in the manner of the century that was starting rather than the one that had ended.
Three buildings on it, 1860–1879
The Fürstengruft, by Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray, holds the sarcophagi of Goethe and Schiller. Beside it stands the Russian Orthodox Chapel, built between 1860 and 1862 for Grand Duchess Maria Pawlowna[1] — a Romanov who married into a Thuringian duchy needed somewhere to be buried in her own rite. The Gedächtnishalle followed in 1878/79.[1] Three structures, three different ideas of what a grave is for, inside one wall.
What to know before the vault
Entry to the cemetery is free and the vault is ticketed, and the vault is closed on Tuesdays and through the winter.[3] One thing to carry down the steps: the coffin marked Schiller does not hold him. The remains moved here in 1827 have been shown by genetic testing to be other people's, which the foundation states plainly.[2]
Questions visitors ask
- What is buried in the Ducal Vault?
- The sarcophagi of Goethe and Schiller. Schiller was first buried in the Kassengewölbe on the old Jakobsfriedhof in 1805[2] and moved here in 1827,[3] thirteen years after this cemetery replaced that older one; Goethe followed later. The coffin marked Schiller does not hold him — genetic testing has shown that the remains moved here in 1827 belong to other people.[2]
- What else is on the grounds?
- Two other buildings beside the Fürstengruft: the Russian Orthodox Chapel, built 1860–1862 for Grand Duchess Maria Pawlowna,[1] and the Gedächtnishalle of 1878/79[1] — three structures, three different ideas of what a grave is for, inside one wall.
- Is it free to visit?
- The cemetery grounds are free. The Ducal Vault itself is ticketed: €7 adults, €5 reduced, €2 for pupils aged 16–20.[3]
- When is the Ducal Vault open?
- Wednesday to Monday, 10:00–18:00, closed Tuesdays and closed over the winter.[3]
Connected Historical Figures
architect • Oberbaudirektor
He is buried here, under a grave slab of his own design on the western cemetery wall.
grand duchess • patron
The Russian Orthodox Chapel here was built for her between 1860 and 1862.
Also associated with this site:
Sources (3)
- Historischer Friedhof Weimar — Stadt Weimar, retrieved 30 August 2026
- Kassengewölbe — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Fürstengruft — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Visit Information
Ducal Vault €7 adults, €5 reduced, €2 pupils aged 16–20; the cemetery grounds are free
Ducal Vault: Wed–Mon 10:00–18:00, closed Tue, and closed over the winter
Am Poseckschen Garten, 99423 Weimar
50.9681, 11.3216
Events held here
Events
Daily at 10:00 and 14:00, about two hours
The vault Goethe lies in, and where Schiller's sarcophagus stands beside his.
One day in June
The Fürstengruft is inscribed together with the historic cemetery laid out around it.
In Weimar's history
Historic sites
Historischer Friedhof am Poseckschen Garten, 99423 Weimar
The vault stands on the hill in the middle of the Historic Cemetery.
Am Jakobskirchhof, 99423 Weimar
The vault on the Jakobskirchhof where Schiller was actually buried, in the cemetery this one succeeded.
Am Rollplatz 4, 99423 Weimar
The church of the Jakobsfriedhof, the older burial ground this cemetery replaced in 1818.
Historical periods
Where the period's dead were gathered — a decade after the period's own end date.
For roughly sixty years a duchy of a few thousand people held the centre of German literature, because its ruler kept inviting writers to live there and then gave them jobs. That is the whole mechanism, and it ran from Goethe's arrival in 1775 to his death in 1832.
In Weimar's history
Twice in three years the World Heritage Committee put Weimar on its list: the Bauhaus buildings on 7 December 1996, and the eleven monuments of Classical Weimar on 2 December 1998.
Listed with the Fürstengruft as one of the eleven monuments of Classical Weimar in 1998.