Stadtschloss Weimar
About This Site
The Stadtschloss on the Burgplatz was the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: a four-wing palace whose classical face dates from the rebuilding after the fire of 1774, carried out from 1789 under Goethe's direction on the walls of the baroque Wilhelmsburg, with the 53-metre tower as its oldest part. Almost the whole palace has been a museum since 1923, with the Cranach collection and the Dichterzimmer inside; closed for a complete restoration since July 2018, it reopens on 2 October 2026.
A castle on the water, and four fires, 10th century–1774
A water castle is attested on this site from the tenth century, the seat of the counts of Orlamünde.[1] It burned in 1299 and again in the great town fire of 1424, and on 2 August 1618 — as the Thirty Years' War began — the palace burned half down.[1] Duke Wilhelm IV took the ruin in hand in 1651, and since then the palace has carried his name, the Wilhelmsburg.[1] In the palace fire of 6 May 1774 the baroque Wilhelmsburg was destroyed completely, down to the tower, the gatehouse and the chapel.[1]
The tower, 1728
The former medieval keep and watch tower received its baroque curved dome and lantern in 1728, to a design by Gottfried Heinrich Krohne; at 53 metres it is a landmark of the town and the oldest part of the palace a visitor sees from the Burgplatz.[1]
Rebuilt under Goethe's direction, 1789–1803
In March 1789 Duke Carl August founded the palace building commission, in which Goethe took an active part from the start, and from 1789 the classical architects Johann August Arens, Nikolaus Friedrich Thouret, Heinrich Gentz and Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray were charged with the work — on the enclosing walls of the baroque three-wing palace, with Coudray carrying it on into the middle of the nineteenth century.[1][2] On 1 August 1803 Carl August and his family moved into the east wing.[1]
The Dichterzimmer, from 1835, and the fourth wing, 1913–1914
From 1835 Grand Duchess Maria Pawlowna had the Dichterzimmer decorated by well-known painters of her day, to a general design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, as memorial rooms to the most famous of Weimar's dead writers — Goethe, Schiller and Herder among them.[1][2] Only in 1913/14, under Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst, was the three-wing complex open towards the park closed by a south wing, which made it the four-wing palace of today.[1]
A museum since 1923, closed since 2018, reopening 2026
Since 1923 almost the whole palace has been a museum, with an art-historical exhibition centred on painting between 1500 and 1900 and an extensive collection of works by Lucas Cranach the Elder and the Younger; since 1998 the palace has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble Classical Weimar.[1] In 2018 the Klassik Stiftung entered the central phase of the palace's complete restoration, and since 2 July 2018 it has been closed altogether.[1] It reopens on 2 October 2026, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00; adults pay €8, reduced €6, pupils aged 16 to 20 €3, children under 16 nothing; the building is not step-free.[2]
Questions visitors ask
- Is the Stadtschloss open?
- It has been closed for a complete restoration since 2 July 2018 and reopens on 2 October 2026 — then Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00.
- Why is the palace called the Wilhelmsburg?
- After Duke Wilhelm IV, who took the burnt-out ruin in hand in 1651 and rebuilt it as the baroque residence; the name has stayed since.
- What did Goethe have to do with the palace?
- He took an active part from the start in the palace building commission Carl August founded in March 1789, which rebuilt the residence after the fire of 1774 with the architects Arens, Thouret, Gentz and Coudray.
- What is the oldest part of the palace?
- The tower — the former medieval keep, given its baroque dome and lantern in 1728 — which survived the fire of 1774 along with the gatehouse.
- What will there be to see when it reopens?
- The museum's art-historical collection, centred on painting from 1500 to 1900 and including an extensive Cranach collection, and the Dichterzimmer, the memorial rooms for Goethe, Schiller and Herder decorated from 1835.
Connected Historical Figures
hereditary prince • grand duke
On 8 and 11 March 1848 the crowds pressed into tumults in the palace courtyard demanding liberal ministers.
architect • Oberbaudirektor
He built the palace's west wing with its chapel between 1820 and 1834.
duke • elector
The Renaissance castle on this site was the residence he chose in 1552.[^stadt-weimar-chronik-1552]
composer • musician • organist
He played the Himmelsburg, the chapel of the Wilhelmsburg, from 1708 to 1717, and was held four weeks in the palace's Bastille in 1717.
duchess • grand duchess
Here, on 15 October 1806 and the morning after, she faced Napoleon, who had taken quarters in the palace, and got the plundering of the town stopped.
reformer • theologian • preacher
In the castle church that stood here he gave the sermons of 24 and 25 October 1522 on secular authority.
duke • builder • president of the Fruitbearing Society
The baroque Wilhelmsburg on this site is his building and his name; its chapel became Bach's Himmelsburg.
writer • statesman • naturalist
He took part from the start in the building commission of March 1789 that rebuilt the palace after the fire of 1774.
Sources (2)
- Schloss Weimar — Wikipedia (de), retrieved 30 August 2026
- Stadtschloss Weimar — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 30 August 2026
Visit Information
€8 adults; €6 reduced; €3 pupils aged 16–20; free under 16
Closed for renovation and reopening on 2 October 2026; from then Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, closed Mon
Burgplatz 4, 99423 Weimar
50.9803, 11.3322
Stay and eat nearby
Where to stay
Markt 19, 99423 Weimar
The palace is on the Burgplatz; the hotel is on the Markt.
Events held here
Events
Fridays at 18:00 and Saturdays at 16:00, about ninety minutes
The residence the whole period is organised around.
Daily at 10:00 and 14:00, about two hours
An early stop, at the top of the route.
Fridays and Saturdays from 20:30, 21 March to 1 November
The high point of the route, in both senses.
One Saturday night in May, 18:00 to midnight
The residence is on the list for the night; it reopens from its long restoration on 2 October 2026.
Four days over Pentecost weekend, in May
The ticketed poets'-rooms tour and the rediscovered palace chapel are both here.
One day in June
The ducal residence itself is one of the properties the ensemble names — the seat the classical town was governed from.
In Weimar's history
Historic sites
The castle through all its rebuildings, from Hornstein to the classical palace.
Am Palais 3, 99423 Weimar
The fire there in 1774 is the reason she needed this house at all.
Historical periods
The court's own house, rebuilt in the style of the period while the period was still running.
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.
The baroque Wilhelmsburg rose here from 1619 and burned on 6 May 1774; its chapel, the Himmelsburg of 1630, was the room Bach played in and was never rebuilt.
The century and a half between two castle fires is the Weimar nobody puts on a poster, and it is the one that made the town musical. It opens with a burnt-out castle in 1618 and closes with another one in 1774 — and in between, in a chapel that no longer exists, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote most of his organ music.
The castle begins here as a medieval moated castle; after the town fire of 1424 it was rebuilt as the Renaissance castle called Hornstein.
For six centuries Weimar is a small Thuringian town with a castle, a market and a church, overshadowed by its bigger neighbours. What the Middle Ages leave here is not a monument but a ground plan — and, after the town burns in 1424, the two buildings everything later happens around.
The Renaissance castle Hornstein was the residence Johann Friedrich chose in 1552; the fire of 1618 that ends this period destroyed it.
For a hundred years Weimar is a Reformation town before it is anything else — and it becomes a capital by accident, because a prince who had lost everything else still had this place. The century leaves the town its market-square gables, an altarpiece the stewards rank among the main works of Reformation painting, and a court that never moved away again.
In Weimar's history
One fire took much of the houses, the castle, the town church and the town hall — and Weimar's oldest surviving buildings are what replaced them.
The castle burned with the town and was rebuilt as the Renaissance Hornstein.
A defeated elector picked the town that was left to him, and Weimar stopped being provincial.
The Renaissance castle became the residence, and stayed one.
The first great society for the German language was founded here — a year before the castle it met in burned down.
The society was founded in the castle on this site, the Renaissance building that burned the following year.
Fire took the Renaissance castle, and what replaced it gave Weimar a Baroque residence and, eventually, Bach's chapel.
The building this happened to, in the second of its three fires.
The court organist asked to leave, and the duke had him locked up for four weeks before letting him go in disgrace.
The Bastille was part of the palace; a plaque there recalls the four weeks.
The Baroque residence burned down to its tower and gatehouse, and the room Bach had played in was gone for good.
The building this happened to: the Baroque Wilhelmsburg, reduced to tower and gatehouse.