Friedenstein Castle brings past centuries to life like few other castles. The imposing castle with its diverse historical chambers, the castle church, but also with unique collections on art, nature and history has been preserved almost unchanged to this day.

Museums in Friedenstein Castle:

Baroque representation rooms: In the palace, you can see the magnificent ducal apartments of the 17th to 19th centuries, which extend over two wings of the huge palace on the second floor. Goethe, Voltaire, Frederick the Great and Napoleon once frequented the culturally important Gotha court. In the castle museum, in addition to historical furniture, precious clocks, porcelain, paintings, coins and much more can be admired. The Kunstkammer shows outstanding exhibits of gold, silver, ivory, amber and nautilus, East Asiatics or curiosities like one of the few original Napoleon hats in the world. It is not only Baroque life culture that comes directly to life during the tour.

Museum of Nature / "Animals in the Tower": The permanent exhibition "Animals in the Tower" shows animal specimens in different departments such as Rainforest, Night or Antarctica. Penguin, tiger, lynx, sea lion, flamingo, eagle owl, sloth and many other animals are presented in a family-friendly presentation. However, the natural history collections, founded in 1640 under Ernst the Pious and constantly expanded, are much more extensive. Other fascinating treasures and curiosities from millions of years of natural history will gradually be presented in the coming years in new permanent exhibitions, such as the planned natural history cabinet.

History Museum / Cultural History: On the way to the new permanent exhibition, the "Construction Site History" offers insights into this important collection with an exclusive selection of archaeological finds, high-quality works of art and entertaining curiosities. From the scraper of a Neanderthal man to an elegant lacquer box with the curl of the English queen to a symbolic SED coffin, 62 fascinating objects illustrate over 100,000 years of Thuringia's history from prehistoric times to German unification. The Eva Maria Dicken Cabinet displays modern art around Marianne Brandt and Hannah Höch.