Veste Heldburg

The Veste Heldburg or Heldburg fortress is a high medieval hilltop castle in the 16th Century was rebuilt into a renaissance castle. It rises on a former volcanic region to Heldburger Gangschar counted, 405 m high volcanic cone 113 m above the town Heldburg in the Heldburger Land, the southern tip of the district Hildburghausen in Thuringia. The Veste Heldburg (also called the "Franconian light"), once a secondary residence and hunting lodge of the Dukes of Coburg, dominates the little town of Heldburg in Thuringian border with Bavaria. Within sight is located in the Bavarian border with Thuringia, the sister-castle Veste Coburg (also called the "Franconian crown"), once residence of the Dukes of Coburg.

At the beginning of the 14th Century was the hilltop castle owned by the Counts of Henneberg-Schleusingen and served as the administrative and judicial seat after the regional power center on Struphe castle (now in ruins Straufhain nearby Streufdorf) was abandoned. 1374 was the Veste Heldburg to the Wettin. Johann Friedrich the Middle she left off in 1560 by his court architect Nikolaus Gromann in style of Renaissance (once be called “Neuer Bau”, today “Französischer Bau”) remove the ducal residence. To Gromanns important Renaissance buildings are “Französischer Bau” of the Veste Heldburg, “Französisches Schloss” (now the “Duchess Anna Amalia Library”) in Weimar and the City Hall of Altenburg..

Duke Johann Casimir (Saxe-Coburg) used the castle as a hunting lodge for decades. On the occasion of his marriage (nuptials) with Margaret of Brunswick-Lüneburg in September 1599 stayed here numerous guests of the Duke, beside the bride Princess Margaret of Brunswick-Lüneburg also Margrave Georg Friedrich I (Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach), Duke Ernst II (Braunschweig-Lüneburg), Duke Wilhelm Kettler of Courland and Semigallians and Duke Johann Ernst (Sachsen-Eisenach), each with their entourage.

After several conquests and plundering in the Thirty Years War the castle was held in 1776 and re-attached residence of the Ernestine dukes of Saxe-Hildburghausen and finally in 1871 the property of the royal house of Meiningen. Duke Georg II.(Sachsen-Meiningen) were restored in 1874-1898 it extensively and lived in it from time to time in May 1877 with his wife Helene Freifrau von Heldburg (Ellen Franz).

Secondary literature

 * E. Fritze: Die Veste Heldburg. Jena 1903, Reprint: Frankenschwelle, Hildburghausen 1990, ISBN 3-86180-016-0
 * Norbert Klaus Fuchs: Das Heldburger Land–ein historischer Reiseführer; Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza 2013, ISBN 978-3-86777-349-2