Schloss Blankenhain

The Blankenhain Castle stands in the small town of Blankenhain in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia. It occupies a site once chosen for defence, high on a plateau above the Schwarza valley. The river cuts through a landscape of rolling uplands between the Saale and Ilm rivers, where medieval trade routes once crossed. The castle’s origins lie in a high-medieval fortress built in 1150 by the Lords of Blankenhain, vassals of the Mainz archbishops from the 13th century. After the family died out in 1416, the Gleichen counts took over and enlarged the stronghold around 1500. The Thirty Years’ War saw the keep demolished, yet the present building still shows parts from that era. A great fire in 1667 led the Hatzfeld countess to rebuild the castle between 1680 and 1690 in its current form. Later, after Prussian and French rule, the castle passed to the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1815 and became state property in 1919. Visitors enter a complex where medieval vaults survive beneath later wings. The central building, added between 1861 and 1880, replaced part of the old curtain wall. The castle’s setting in the Schwarza valley offers quiet walks along tree-lined paths and views across the surrounding uplands.