Schloss Blankenhain
About This Site
A closed, irregular oval of buildings on a plateau above the town, standing on ground fortified since a Frankish round fort of the seventh century. The town's own description explains its plainness disarmingly: it was never a princely residence, so nobody ever gave it splendid architecture — which is why the defensive plan survives at all.
Eight lords, and what each left, 1256–1794
A deed of 1256 has Ludwig von Blankenhain holding place and castle; that line ended in 1416 with Heinrich von Blankenhain. The counts of Gleichen inherited and held it to 1631 — under Count Karl, around 1480, came a substantial rebuilding, of which an oriel above the entrance still survives. From 1631 to 1794 the counts of Hatzfeld held it, and the town names them as the most formative: after several fires they rebuilt in 1690, and that fabric has lasted three hundred years.
The century of changing hands, 1794–1918
Kurmainz took it in 1794, Prussia in 1802, and in 1815 it passed to the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, which held it until 1918 — so for a hundred and three years this castle in another town belonged to Weimar. A central building was added between 1861 and 1880.
The town's building since 1920
Since 1920 the castle has belonged to the town of Blankenhain, and it serves as its cultural and social centre, with rooms for events. That is the ordinary, unglamorous fate that preserved it: a building nobody rebuilt in a grander style, used continuously by people who needed the space.
Questions visitors ask
- Why does the castle look so plain?
- It was never a princely residence, so nobody ever gave it splendid architecture — the town's own explanation for why the defensive plan survives at all.
- How did Weimar come to own a castle in another town?
- It passed from Kurmainz (1794) to Prussia (1802) and in 1815 to the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, which held it until 1918 — a hundred and three years as Weimar's property.
- What's there today?
- Since 1920 it has belonged to the town of Blankenhain, which uses it as its cultural and social centre, with rooms for events.
- Can I visit?
- Access follows the town's events programme in the building; it functions as a cultural centre rather than a museum.
Visit Information
The town publishes what is open and what is charged for; the castle is its cultural centre rather than a museum.
Access follows the events programme the town runs in the building.
Blankenhain, Weimarer Land
In Weimar's history
Historical periods
From 1815 to 1918 the castle belonged to the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach — Weimar's property through the whole of the Silver Age.
Goethe died in 1832, and Weimar had to work out what a town does after its golden age. It decided to keep going, and the answer took eighty-six years — the era the Klassik Stiftung Weimar calls the Silver Age. Music replaced literature as the thing Weimar was for, two royal patrons paid for it, and the schools they founded outlived the monarchy that funded them.
Around Weimar
Southwest
The castle stands on the plateau in the middle of the town and is its cultural centre.