Heldburg Fortress

Heldburg Fortress (German: Veste Heldburg) is a high medieval hilltop castle. In the 16th century it was rebuilt into a renaissance castle. It rises on a 405-metre-high former volcanic cone, a part of the 'Heldburger Gangschar' volcanic region, 113 metres above the town of 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 on the Thuringian border with Bavaria. From it can be seen across the Thuringian border the sister-castle Veste Coburg, (also called the "Franconian crown"), once the residence of the Dukes of Coburg, now located in Bavaria.

At the beginning of the 14th Century the hilltop castle was 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. In 1374 the Veste Heldburg came into the possession of the Wettin family. Johann Friedrich the Middle had it reconstructed in 1560 by his court architect Nikolaus Gromann in the style of the Renaissance (it was originally called the "Neuer Bau", but today is known as the "Französischer Bau") and removed the ducal residence. Gromann's important Renaissance buildings include in addition to the aforementioned "Französischer Bau", the "Französisches Schloss" (now the "Duchess Anna Amalia Library") in Weimar and the City Hall of Altenburg..

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