Blankenhain Castle

To protect important transport routes, there was a high medieval castle in Blankenhain, on whose grounds the castle now stands. The Lords of Blankenhain are said to have been a collateral line of the Lords of Mellingen. They were vassals of the Archbishop of Mainz. In 1147, a witness Gottfried von Blankenhain was mentioned. The first documented mention of Blankenhain dates back to 1252. No exact date for the granting of town rights has been handed down; Blankenhain was first referred to as a town in 1424. Around 1500, the castle was rebuilt, and after a fire in 1667, the estate took on its present form. In the late Middle Ages, Blankenhain was the seat of a line of the House of Gleichen, since 1631 the residence of a line of the Counts of Hatzfeld, and after their extinction, it passed to Saxe-Weimar, to which it belonged until 1920. Blankenhain Castle was for a short time the residence of the Prussian King Frederick William III and his wife Queen Luise during their hasty retreat towards Königsberg after the lost Battle of Jena and Auerstedt.

Since May 2000, the Schlossverein Blankenhain e.V. (Blankenhain Castle Association) has been dedicated to preserving the castle as a public and cultural institution.