Wittumspalais
About This Site
A baroque town palace in the middle of Weimar, built in 1767–69 and bought by Anna Amalia from her own minister after the castle burned in 1774. She lived here until her death in 1807.
Bought from her minister after a fire, 1774
The palace fire of 1774 left the ducal family without a residence, and Anna Amalia's answer was to acquire this house from Jakob Friedrich Freiherr von Fritsch, have the rooms redesigned to her own ideas and the ceilings painted, and move in.[1]
The Tafelrunde room, around 1800
What the museum shows is domestic life around 1800 — her study, kept close to how she left it, the Green Salon, and the room of the Tafelrunde with its oval table, its mosaics and its miniature obelisks.[1]
What happened to the contents, 1807
When she died in 1807 the art and the furnishings passed to her son Carl August.[1] What is shown today is the interior itself, and the study is nearly as she left it.
Questions visitors ask
- How did Anna Amalia come to own this palace?
- The palace fire of 1774 left the ducal family without a residence. She bought this house from her own minister, Jakob Friedrich Freiherr von Fritsch, had the rooms redesigned to her own ideas, and moved in.[1]
- What can I see inside?
- Domestic life around 1800: her study, kept close to how she left it, the Green Salon, and the room of the Tafelrunde with its oval table, mosaics and miniature obelisks.[1]
- What's the Tafelrunde room?
- The room with the oval table at which Anna Amalia's circle gathered, with its mosaics and miniature obelisks.[1]
- Can I visit, and what does it cost?
- Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays: 10:00–16:00 in winter, 10:00–18:00 in summer. €8 adults, €6 reduced, €3 for pupils aged 16–20, free under 16.[1]
Connected Historical Figures
poet • translator • tutor at court
He lived there through his first Weimar winter, 1775/76.[^ndb-knebel]
duchess • regent • patron • composer
She bought it from her minister after the 1774 fire and lived here until her death in 1807.
duke • grand duke • patron
Her son inherited the art and the furnishings when she died in 1807.
Also associated with this site:
Sources (1)
- Wittumspalais — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Visit Information
€8 adults; €6 reduced; €3 pupils aged 16–20; free under 16
Tue–Sun; 10:00–16:00 in winter, 10:00–18:00 in summer; closed Mon
Am Palais 3, 99423 Weimar
50.9798, 11.3269
Stay and eat nearby
Where to stay
Goetheplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
The Wittumspalais is at Am Palais 3; the hotel is on the Goetheplatz.
Events held here
Events
One Saturday night in May, 18:00 to midnight
Anna Amalia's dowager palace, where the Round Table met — one of the houses that shuts before midnight.
Four days over Pentecost weekend, in May
A short ticketed visit format runs here across the days.
One day in June
Anna Amalia's dowager palace — the rooms her Round Table actually met in — is named in the ensemble.
In Weimar's history
Historic sites
The court's baroque town face — Anna Amalia's widow seat by the Theaterplatz.
Burgplatz 4, 99423 Weimar
The fire there in 1774 is the reason she needed this house at all.
Historical periods
The room of the Tafelrunde, where the period's circle gathered around one oval table.
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.
Anna Amalia's widow's seat, one of the eleven monuments of Classical Weimar since 1998.