Discover Meiningen: Palace, Theatre and the Werra

Meiningen combines historic buildings, theatre history and green spaces. Elisabethenburg Palace, the Old Town and the Werra landscape each offer a different experience. If you are planning a hotel stay, you can organise your visits according to whether you are most interested in museums, architecture or outdoor activities.

Palace, Museums and Theatre History

Elisabethenburg Palace was built between 1682 and 1692 under Bernhard I as the residence of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. Today it is home to the Meiningen Museums and is an important cultural monument under the patronage of the Meiningen-Eisenach Cultural Foundation. The museum displays paintings, sculpture and applied arts.

The Theatre Museum “Magic World of Stage Sets” offers a particular insight into theatre history. Exhibits include a stage set around 14 metres long, costumes, theatre programmes and autographs from the history of the Meiningen Theatre. The stage set provides a different focus from the collections on performances and people.

In the Old Town, the Town Church, or St Mary’s Church of Our Lady, is a focal point. Its towers are 50 metres high. The English Garden also brings culture and urban space together: at the suggestion of former Duke Georg II, it is home to monuments to Jean Paul, Johannes Brahms and Max Reger. Among them is the world’s first monument to Johannes Brahms.

Parkland, Hiking Trails and Caves

The palace park was transformed into an English landscape garden. An arched bridge designed by Eduard Fritze in 1883 crosses the Werra there. The park lies directly beside the river and is a starting point for leisure activities and hikes. Alongside its buildings, the Werra also shapes the opportunities to spend time outdoors.

Meiningen has more than ten walking and hiking routes, ranging from three to twelve kilometres. You can follow in the footsteps of Johannes Brahms, Ludwig Bechstein and Friedrich Schiller along these routes. The stated distance range offers different route options, while the themes connect the trails with music and literature. The countryside around Meiningen lies between the Rennsteig and the Rhön; activities on offer include hiking, cycling and leisurely paddling on the Werra.

The Goetz Cave is considered Europe’s largest and only accessible fissure cave. After your visit, you can take in the view over the city from Meiningen’s highest beer garden. This outing therefore combines an experience of nature with a view of Meiningen.

Another destination nearby is the Sandstone and Fairy-Tale Cave, which offers a glimpse into the underground mining of fine-grained white sand, used for strewing and scouring. The show cave covers 65,000 square metres and contains 2,500 supporting pillars; it is one of the largest man-made caves of its kind in Europe. A visit brings the lives of the sand-mining families of the time to life. In the cave, children can discover scenes from fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and Ludwig Bechstein, a writer with ties to Meiningen.

More Destinations in the Wider Schmalkalden-Meiningen Travel Region

If you are also exploring the wider Schmalkalden-Meiningen travel region, other places to visit include the Viba Nougat World and the “Neue Hütte” blast furnace museum in Schmalkalden. At the glass-fronted Viba Nougat World factory, you can see how nougat is made; hands-on confectionery courses include pouring chocolate, decorating nougat and creating pralines. Check course times and booking conditions in advance. The Neue Hütte is a blast furnace complex dating from 1835, where local iron ores were smelted with charcoal to produce pig iron until 1924. The museum also explores the almost 1,300-year history of iron and steel goods production in the Schmalkalden region; a guided tour of the history and operation of the blast furnace takes 45 minutes.

Discover more destinations: Rotterode, Unterkatz, Bermbach, Benshausen, Schwallungen, Trusetal, Vachdorf, Rhönblick.

Back to the wider travel guide: Schmalkalden-Meiningen.