Landsberg Castle

The castle is a Neo-Gothic building, modeled after 19th-century English stately homes. It consists of three parts: the actual castle with three towers, the gatehouse, and the castle manager's house. The complex is surrounded by a crenellated wall.

Behind the northern gatehouse, to the right after a small ascent, stands the main house, flanked by a northern round tower with a conical spire and an octagonal tower with a crenellated platform. A wide but short flight of steps leads to the lower rooms with the castle tavern. An adjacent flight of steps with richly decorated stone balustrade leads up to the main entrance on the east side of the castle. From here, one first enters the armory with an oak-paneled ceiling and then, via a corridor, into the Knights' Hall. Next to it is the access to the crenellated main tower with its 100-step spiral staircase, from whose platform visitors can enjoy a wide panoramic view over the northern districts of Meiningen as well as Walldorf, into the Werra Valley, into the Rhön, and as far as the Dolmar.

Behind the main house is the castle courtyard with a fountain, to which the castle manager's building is attached. Between this house and a gate, which forms the southern end of the castle complex, the keep of the former Landeswehre Castle is integrated into the castle wall. The ceilings of numerous rooms and halls are adorned with Gothic net-rib vaults. The castle is further embellished with round turrets with conical roofs, walls, and other ornamentation.

Worth seeing are the "Lion Oriel" on the main tower and the Neo-Gothic Knights' Hall, which is paneled with richly decorated oak wood and adorned, among other things, with eight large murals depicting events from Wettin-Saxon and Thuringian history. The castle houses luxuriously furnished chambers and suites, including the richly gilded wedding suite.

The current 4-star hotel, opened in 1978 by the HO as a luxury hotel, is now managed by Meininger Hotels mit Flair GmbH. It has a total of 13 double rooms and 7 suites, including a wedding suite, all of which, with the exception of the attic rooms, are accessible by lift. All rooms are equipped with shower or bath, toilet, hairdryer, telephone, TV with radio alarm clock, and minibar, and are luxuriously and individually furnished. They also have an ISDN connection and Wi-Fi internet access. In the suites, guests also have bathrobes and umbrellas at their disposal. The hotel includes the restaurants "Rittersaal" (Knights' Hall) with a terrace and "Burgschänke" (Castle Tavern) with a beer garden, as well as a tower bar.

During the GDR years, the hotel was very popular with diplomats and ambassadors due to its architecture and exposed location. Famous guests during this time also included Hot Chocolate. Today, the hotel is a popular destination for wedding couples from all over Germany due to its fairytale architecture. For this reason, the city of Meiningen has established an external branch of the registry office here since 2005. Famous guests in recent years have included Jörg Pilawa, Gunther Emmerlich, Janine Kunze, and Tina Ruland.

Landeswehre Castle was first mentioned in a document in 1129. It served to protect the trade routes to Würzburg (Hohe Straße) and Fulda (Frankfurter Straße), the Werra Valley road towards Salzungen, the Werra ford near Walldorf, and the access to Meiningen. It also included a manor farm at the foot of the mountain. During the German Peasants' War, on May 13, 1525, peasant hordes moving up the Werra stormed the castle and destroyed it, except for the keep and parts of the wall. It had been uninhabitable ever since. The tower, which tilted to the side in 1685 during an explosion to extract building material, remains in remnants to this day and is integrated into the castle ensemble.

Inspired by his visits to his sister Adelheid, Queen of Great Britain, Bernhard Erich Freund, reigning Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, acquired Landsberg Mountain and the associated properties with the manor farm in 1836 and had a new castle built in the Neo-Gothic style, modeled after English stately homes, under the direction of architect August Wilhelm Döbner by 1840. The manor farm was converted and expanded into a Swiss-style dairy farm with barns, stables, carriage house, and manor house by 1842.

Until the First World War, the castle was a popular excursion destination. Then it came into private ownership and was no longer accessible until 1945. After brief uses as a retirement home and educational institution, the HO operated an excursion restaurant in the castle from the 1960s. They finally converted it into a luxury hotel between 1975 and 1978. From 1991 to 1996, the castle was owned by Prince Friedrich-Ernst von Saxe-Meiningen, who continued the hotel operation. In March 1997, Meininger Hotels mit Flair GmbH took over the castle and hotel and carried out extensive renovation and modernization work in 2003. At the beginning of 2008, the castle was transferred to the "Stiftung Meininger Baudenkmäler" (Meiningen Architectural Monuments Foundation).