page_title: Altenstein Palace
section_title: Current structure
hierarchical_section_title: Altenstein Palace / History / Current structure
caption_attribution_description: English: Burial site of the last Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen at Altenstein, Thuringia, view from the direction of the Fohlenwiese
context_page_description: Schloss Altenstein is a schloss, or palace, upon a rocky hill on the south-western slope of the Thuringian Forest, not far from Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. It was the summer residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen, and is surrounded by 160 hectares of English landscape garden, which contain, among other objects of interest, a cavern 300 metres long, through which flows a large and rapid stream.
context_section_description: In the night of 27/28 April 1733, an arsonist set fire to Steinbach, destroying 106 houses. Sparks and burning debris were carried all the way to the Altenstein, setting it alight. The old castle was completely destroyed. In 1736, a new palace in the Baroque style was erected by order of Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. The architect was Alessandro Rossini. However, the client was not pleased with the result since he expected the palace to face south and not as constructed towards the east. Reportedly, the Duke never used the palace. Yet his son, Duke Georg I began to use the palace from 1798 as the summer residence for himself and his family. He had some improvements made at the Schloss and the Hofmarschallamt (a simple three-storied building with Doric columns flanking the entry) was constructed. Georg I also had some changes made to the park. In 1799, the Altenstein cave was discovered during road works.
  Duke Bernhard II repeatedly asked architects – including the British court architect Jeffry Wyattville, to whom Bernhard had connections through his sister Adelheid (wife of William IV) – to devise new plans for the palace, but none of them were implemented. In 1866, Bernhard resigned as Duke as a result of the Austro-Prussian War. However, he retained the Altenstein and lived there until his death in 1882. His wife Marie died in 1887. Only under their son Georg II did work at the house and park recommence. In 1888, he asked his court architect, Albert Neumeister, to come up with proposals and suggested as examples Hatfield House and Knole House. Neumeister and Georg II eventually settled on a compromise design. Whilst the architect had argued for a completely new palace, Georg II insisted on adding or changing the existing structure. The result was a palace that used the basic Baroque structure, but was designed in the English Renaissance Revival style, featuring two-storied oriels, bow windows, numerous chimneys, and obelisk ornaments. This style, unique in Thuringia, was inspired by the relationships of the Meiningen dynasty to Great Britain and the taste of Georg II (also known as the "Theatre-Duke"), who liked the plays of William Shakespeare.
  The gardens had been redesigned beginning in the 1840s, after a visit by Hermann, Fürst von Pückler-Muskau in 1845. He was impressed by the park but gave the owner detailed advice on how to improve it. Actual design work was done by Weimar court gardener Carl Eduard Petzold. Ten years after Pückler-Muskau, Peter Joseph Lenné also offered some advice.
  Altenstein was the summer residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen until the end of the monarchy in 1918. Although the upkeep of palace and park was subsequently neglected (in 1918 vandals destroyed the Teufelsbrücke and in 1923 the "Chinese Pavilion" had to be torn down), the ducal family retained use of the Altenstein. When Princess Charlotte of Prussia, the wife of the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, Bernhard III, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and sister of the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II, died in 1919, the Duke had a burial site created in the park; she was buried there in 1920. He himself died in 1928 and was buried next to his wife.
  The Altenstein remained the property of the family until Ernst, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, died in 1941. His widow, Käthe Baroness von Saalfeld (née Katharina Jensen, daughter of poet Wilhelm Jensen), decided to sell the property to the state of Thuringia in 1942. Although negotiations with the company running the Liebenstein spa (which had also rented the property) were well advanced, once the state declared an interest, these agreements were revoked. On 5 August 1942, Ralf Baron von Saalfeld (as executor of the will) sold the Altenstein estate to Thuringia for 521,000 Reichsmark (equivalent to 2 million 2009 euros). During World War II it served as a recreation home for the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht from 1943 to 1945. It served briefly as barracks for American and then for Soviet troops. After the Soviet occupation in 1945, the palace became a recreation home for the H
caption: Park Altenstein: Burial site of the last Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen
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