Places to visit in Thuringia

Thuringia lies in the middle of Germany. The beech forests of the Hainich National Park belong to the transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe.

The state of Thuringia was formed on 1st May 1920 from seven Thuringian free states. Erfurt did not belong to it at that time; today it is the state capital. On the Domplatz (‘cathedral square’) stand Erfurt Cathedral and St Severus’ Church side by side. The Krämerbrücke (‘Merchants’ Bridge’), a stone bridge over the Breitstrom branch of the Gera, is built over with houses and is still inhabited today.

In Weimar, residential houses, palaces and parks belong to the UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Classical Weimar’. In Goethe’s house on the Frauenplan, the study with his private library has been handed down in its furnishings; here he also housed his art and scientific collections. The World Heritage Site also includes Schiller’s house, the Duchess Anna Amalia Library and the Park on the Ilm. Many of these buildings were restored after war damage and in part reconstructed; the library burned in 2004 and was subsequently restored. The Haus Am Horn and the former art school buildings, by contrast, belong to the separate Bauhaus World Heritage Site, which extends across Weimar, Dessau and Bernau.

Above Eisenach stands the Wartburg Castle, likewise World Heritage. Its Palas (the main residential building) is a well-preserved Romanesque secular building; the rest of the castle is a reconstruction of the 19th century. At the Wartburg, Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German, and Elisabeth of Thuringia also lived and worked here.

The Old Synagogue, the mikveh and the Stone House form a further World Heritage Site in Erfurt, the Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt. The three buildings are largely preserved in form and material; in the mikveh, the community’s ritual bath, its original function is still recognisable today. In Jena stands the Zeiss Planetarium. Its projectors were developed and built in the Jena Zeiss works, and the first demonstrations took place in a provisional dome on the roof of the works.