Building history The castle built for Ernst I was constructed according to general principles favoured by Protestant rulers in the 17th century. It took the form of a so-called "sub-ordinated" palace, meaning that the four wings are not on an equal footing but that there is one dominating main wing. At
Friedenstein that is the four-story north wing, facing the town. The two side wings have three floors (but end in the four-story towers or pavilions) and the final wing had just one floor. Initially, all the state apartments were housed in the four-storied sections of the palace. Emil August's brother and successor,
Friedrich IV did not live in the palace but in the town. His main contribution to the palace was bringing together the gallery of paintings from
Friedenstein and other castles in the vicinity. This was located on the second floor of the west pavilion. Friedrich also created the
Kunst- und Naturalienkabinett on the third floor of the north wing – the nucleus of the Ducal museums. The current appearance of the theatre dates mostly to renovation in 1774/75, although the ceiling (looking like
Coffer but actually printed on canvas) is still the original from the 1680s. In the 1770s, the balcony was extended and a second one added above. The theatre features a Baroque '''' still in working condition, which makes it possible to change the scenery in view of the audience while the curtain is open. The mechanism was restored in the 1770s but is largely unchanged from 1683.
Parks Friedenstein is surrounded by substantial gardens, developed individually but today linked into one park. The first garden was created even before the castle itself. The vegetable garden south of the castle was started in 1641/42. In 1645 and 1649, other gardens followed; the
Hertzogin Lustgärtlein in the west and another
Lustgarten to the east. Due to the existence of the massive fortifications around the castle, these first gardens were fairly small. In 1707/08, a
water feature (Wasserkunst) was added north of the castle on the slope towards the town. Around 1700, the western
Lustgarten was redesigned in a
Baroque style (this garden does not exist anymore today). More gardens were created east of the castle and in 1706 the eastern
Lustgarten was also redesigned. From 1708 to 1711/14 the
Friedrichsthaler Garten was created with a
Lustschloss that eventually became the
French Baroque style Schloss Friedrichsthal. The axis between
Friedrichsthal and
Friedenstein was turned into the
Orangeriegarten between 1747 and 1774, designed by . This is the oldest part of the gardens still in existence today. By the time it was finished, however, this type of garden had become unfashionable. After 1767, Ernst II combined the individual gardens into a single ensemble. The bastions were demolished and new sections added: • The
English landscape garden to the south is based on ideas of
Lancelot Brown and was originally designed by
John Haverfield. It is one of the oldest such parks in continental Europe, built after 1769. • After 1779, the
Herzoginnengarten was built, south of the Orangerie and in 1781 a
Gothic Revival building was added (
Teeschlösschen). • Finally, the fortifications were replaced by the
Herzögliche Anlagen. In the 19th century, only minor alterations were made to the gardens. After the change in dynasties, the English garden was opened to the public in 1827. In the second half of the 19th century the last remaining formal gardens were replaced - the new museum building and the
Tannengarten replaced the kitchen garden in 1869-82. Major changes in the 20th century were limited to memorials and the areas immediately to the north and south of the castle proper. In 1904, the statue of Ernst der Fromme to the north was erected. This area between town and castle has since been restored in 1998, although it was previously occupied in turn by a fire pond, an air raid shelter and a parking area. South of the castle, a memorial to the dead of World War I was built in 1927 on the
Reitplatz. In 1930, this area was part of the
Deutsche Rosenschau. In 1947, the statue of the soldier was removed by the
Soviet authorities and twenty years later replaced with a memorial to “the victims of fascism”. This memorial in turn was demolished in 2011. ==Today==