Altenstein Palace

Schloss Altenstein is a schloss (a German term for palace) upon a rocky hill on the south-western slope of the Thuringian Forest, not far from Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. It was the summer residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen, and is surrounded by 160 hectares (1.6 square kilometres) of English landscape garden, which contain, among other objects of interest, a cavern 300 metres long, through which flows a large and rapid stream.

Altenstein is a part of the municipality of Bad Liebenstein in the Wartburgkreis near Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. It sits on a platform with a height of around 460 metres above sea level, part of the dolomite hills at the western edge of the Thuringian Forest. It is surrounded by 160 hectares of park, which includes several pinnacles of Zechstein rock.

A fortified structure, possibly initially a pre-Christian holy site, may have been roughly in the same location as the current house by the 6th century. The structure at this original site was later referred to as Alter Steyn. Saint Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, reportedly lived and preached at Altenstein in 724 and built a chapel on the so-called Bonifatiusfelsen. A new castle (Neuenburg) was later built at this site by the Kloster Fulda. In 1116, a knight "Dudo von Steyn" (later known as von Frankenstein) was mentioned as holding a castle here. Neuenburg itself was first mentioned in an extant document in 1150. In 1225, the older castle was first referred to as de antique lapide ("Old Stone"). From the mid-14th century, the castle was in the possession of the Landgraves of Thuringia. According to a 1330 document, in that year the von Frankenstein family sold the Neuenburg to Berthold VIII von Henneberg. In 1346, Friedrich der Ernsthafte, Landgraf von Thüringen bought the Altenstein, but not the Neuenburg (which remained with the Henneberg family until 1495), from Heinrich von Salza, steward of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg at Meiningen. In 1347, Friedrich der Strenge married Katharina von Henneberg, the local estates of Steinbach and Schweina were given to her as dowry. In 1353, after the death of Katharina's mother, Friedrich united these lands with Altenstein, Gumpelstadt and Waldfisch to create the Vogtei Altenstein. Around 1370, Altenstein was in the hand of Raubritter, calling themselves "Sterner". In 1379, they sacked Meiningen. In 1402, Landgraf Balthasar, residing on Wartburg Castle, stopped their activities. In the late 15th century, the Altenstein passed to the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin (in 1485) who gave it as a fief to the Franconian family of Hans Hund von Wenkheim (died 1505) in 1492. In 1495, Hans Hund also bought the Neuenburg. Not far from the Altenstein is the place where, in 1521, Martin Luther was "seized" by the order of the elector Frederick the Wise in a staged kidnapping, to be carried off to the Wartburg. An old beech called "Luther's Tree", which tradition connected with the reformer, was blown down in 1841, and a small monument now stands in its place. The Neuenburg was destroyed and the Altenstein damaged in 1554. The subsequent reconstruction work caused strife between the Hund family and the local communities about the use of socage. This lasted for 70 years and resulted in the Reichsacht being placed on several members of the family in 1622. In 1640, during the Thirty Years' War Imperial troops sacked Altenstein Castle. In 1699, Erhard Friedrich Hund ended witchhunts in his possessions. Between 1485 and 1699, 18 people had been killed in the Amt Altenstein as a result of persecution for witchcraft. Erhard also founded a hospital and an orphanage at Schweina. In 1722, the family Hund von Wenkheim died out and the fief passed back to the Ernestines, the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen.

Palace data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).