The Renaissance Palace @museum.de

The poet Goethe spent more than two months – from July to September 1828 – living at Dornburg’s Renaissance Palace. He was an elderly man by this time, and this was after the death of his friend and patron, Carl August von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. The celebrated poet went into seclusion at Dornburg to mourn the loss of his friend.

Grand Duke Carl-August had acquired the Renaissance Palace a few years earlier and had furnished it very much according to his personal taste. Until then, it had been the main house of an independent manor on the south-western edge of the rocky plateau and had few connections with the other two palaces.

Built in around 1539, shortly after the beginning of the Reformation, and remodelled in the years after 1600, it bears all the hallmarks of a prestigious period mansion. These include the “Treppenturm”, literally “Stair Tower” with its Welsh spire flanked by two dormers, and above all the imposing Renaissance portal with seating alcoves.

Joyfully enter and joyfully depart!
If you pass as a traveller, God bless your path.

Reads the Latin inscription on the portal ... Goethe actually translated it into German. He was impressed by the skilful Renaissance stone carving:

"The frame of the self-same door is lavishly decorated with architectural carvings in the manner of the time and, along with the inscription, conveys the conviction that, more than two hundred years ago, well-educated people were at work here, that a general benevolence dwelt here...".

The "well-educated people" would have been, for example, the official tax collector Wolfgang Zetzsching and his wife Elisabeth Apitz, who had their coats of arms carved into the stone portal above. They gave the building its present appearance when they remodelled it in around 1600.

Goethe, who was being looked after by the court gardener, Carl August Christian Sckell and his wife, extended his stay several times, received visitors, enjoyed the gardens and even celebrated his 79th birthday here in Dornburg in late August 1828.

After the end of the monarchy, the Goethe Society took over sponsorship of the Rococo and Renaissance palaces in 1922. In 1928, the centenary of the poet's stay was solemnly celebrated by newly transforming the Renaissance palace into a Goethe memorial site.

Today, the Rococo and Renaissance palaces are open for visitors from April to October, every day except Wednesdays. Opening times are 10 am to 5 pm. Tickets are available here at the Renaissance Palace, so why not pick some up and start your tour.

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Zitate Goethe: nach Ignasiak, S. 23