The building has been developed over the past 500 years. The first building on the site was a medieval moated castle, which was first documented at the end of the 10th century. After a fire in 1424, and again from the mid-16th century, when Weimar became the permanent residence of the dukes, it was remodelled. After another fire in 1618, reconstruction began in 1619 planned by the Italian architect
Giovanni Bonalino. The church was completed in 1630, where several works by
Johann Sebastian Bach were premiered between 1708 and 1717. In the 1650s
Johann Moritz Richter was engaged by
Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Weimar to modify the design to a symmetrical Baroque structure with three wings, open to the south. After Wilhelm's death in 1662, the new building became known as the "Wilhelmsburg"; the chapel was called the "Himmelsburg".
Duchess Anna Amalia, a née Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, as regent for her young son, made her court into a centre of arts. From 1771 to 1774 the theatre company of
Abel Seyler was engaged by Duchess Anna Amalia as a permanent court theatre. The building was destroyed by fire in 1774, which forced the Seyler company to leave. Duke
Carl August formed a commission for its reconstruction directed by
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who had arrived at the court in 1775. Architects
Johann August Arens, and
Heinrich Gentz kept the former walls of the east and north wings and created a "
classical" interior, especially the staircase and the banqueting hall (
Festsaal). Decoration was supplied by sculptor
Christian Friedrich Tieck. In 1816,
Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray began plans for the west wing, which was reopened in 1847 with a court chapel. The wing contained the so-called
Dichterzimmer (poets' rooms), initiated by Grand Duchess
Maria Pavlovna, a daughter of
Russian Tsar
Paul I. They commemorate
Christoph Martin Wieland,
Johann Gottfried Herder,
Friedrich Schiller and Goethe. Thus, large parts of the palace have been preserved in the decorative state of
Weimar Classicism. This was certainly not only due to the intellectual height of this era, but also to the fact that Grand Duke
Charles Alexander (1853–1901) and his wealthy wife,
Princess Sophie of the Netherlands, had the
Wartburg near Eisenach extensively rebuilt as a national cultural monument in the
Neo-Romanesque style during his long reign. This undoubtedly spared the palace from being furnished in a
historicist style. However, from 1912 to 1914 a south wing was added under Grand Duke
Wilhelm Ernst. The Herder Room was restored in 2005, the restoration of the Goethe Room and the Wieland Room was completed in 2014. File:Weimar-1650-Merian.jpg|Town and
Residenz around 1650 File:Weimar Christoph Riegel 1686.jpeg|Town and
Residenz around 1686 File:Weimar_Wilhelmsburg_1730.jpg|The Wilhelmsburg around 1730 File:The castle, Weimar, Thuringia, Germany-LCCN2002720790.jpg|The
Bastille around 1905 File:Luftbild Weimarer Stadtschloss-0063.jpg|Aerial view File:Schloss Weimar, court from the south.JPG|Court, seen from the south wing, 2014 File:Gentzsches Treppenhaus Weimar.JPG|Staircase, 1801 File:Festsaal@Weimar Stadtschloss Innen.JPG|Ballroom File:Weimarer Stadtschloss - Innenräume Ostfügel während der Renovierung-9000.jpg|Mirror Gallery File:Zedernzimmer@Weimar Stadtschloss Innen.JPG|Ceder Room == Museum ==