Just a few kilometres from Thuringia’s oldest spa town, Bad Liebenstein, lies Altenstein Palace. Built in the Neo-Renaissance style, it once served the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen as a summer residence. The palace is surrounded by a picturesque landscape park with a Chinese Pavilion, elaborate carpet beds, and viewpoints over the River Werra Valley. None other than Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau was involved in the design of the park. Since 2017, the palace has housed a memorial to Johannes Brahms, who visited several times.
Due to construction work, the castle will not be open to the public until the end of 2026. The park is freely accessible.
Visitor Centre
Altenstein 8
36448 Bad Liebenstein
T: 03 69 61 – 73 80 64
email address
website
Friends of Altenstein-Glücksbrunn e.V.
Website
Altenstein Visitor Centre
seasonal, April to October
Opening hours:
Tue – Fri 11 am – 3 pm
Sat/Sun, public holidays 11 am – 4 pm
Closed on Mondays
Park/Garden
Landscape park is freely accessible all year round
Altenstein Palace owes its present appearance to Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen (1826–1914). Politically, his duchy played a rather minor role in the interplay of the European great powers. Nevertheless, the small Saxe-Meiningen gained Europe-wide renown, as its art-loving ruler went down in history as the “Theatre Duke”. Georg II directed productions, designed costumes and stage sets, wrote treatises on director’s theatre, and brought the Meiningen Court Orchestra renewed fame. Within two years he had the palace on the Altenstein fundamentally remodelled, which caused his court architect quite a headache. For the duke, whose understanding of art was shaped by historicism, had clear ideas and strict requirements. The result was a building in the style of English manor houses – with scrolled stepped gables, curved windows, semi-circular bays, numerous chimneys and obelisk finials. In summer, the Altenstein Palace often served as the residential seat of the ducal family and developed into a place of muse. The duke invited intellectuals, artists and musicians there, including the composer Johannes Brahms, who visited Altenstein Palace several times. In November 1894, he wrote to Clara Schumann: “I wish (…) you could sit here at my window, step onto my balcony and then out into the glorious park and forest. The most beautiful pheasants, stags and deer stroll about by the dozen.”
Today, Altenstein Palace is one of the few places that still have a direct connection to Brahms’s life. The Brahms Memorial therefore displays, among other things, precious autographs, first editions and original pictures. After a fire in 1982 destroyed the Altenstein Palace’s built-in historic interior, the opening of the memorial marked an important milestone on the road to the complete restoration of the palace.
The beginnings of today’s extensive park go back to Georg I of Saxe-Meiningen (1771–1803). The duke made Altenstein Palace his summer residence and began to establish a landscape garden. In doing so, he laid the foundation stone for one of the largest historic parks in Thuringia. In 1853, the local historian Georg Brückner wrote of the “gem of Thuringian forest nature”. No wonder: famous landscape architects such as Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau and Peter Joseph Lenné contributed important ideas to the design of the park. Pückler-Muskau was enthusiastic during his visits about the “wonderful setting, luxuriant lawns, (…) precipitously plunging rocks with terraced gardens”, yet he did not fail to offer “advice on the park layout” – and so large sight lines were created, opening views over the River Werra Valley. The expansive park also entices with viewpoints and park structures such as the Morning Plateau, the Knights’ Chapel, and the Chinese Pavilion. Around the palace, you will find the Altenstein carpet bed and the knot bed.
Beneath the park lies the Altenstein Cave, discovered in 1799 during roadworks. In 1800, Duke Georg I had an underground landscape park created here. This park has been open to the public again as part of guided tours since December 2023.
