Friedenstein Palace is surrounded by a wonderful and varied park landscape, which presents a graceful picture at any time of year. In summer, the baroque orangery opens up like a blooming theater in the direction of Friedrichsthal Palace. An English landscape garden was created by Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who had the huge fortifications around the castle filled in after 1770. The park pond, a temple to Mercury and the "Holy Island", which served as a burial place for several members of the ducal family, still convey the impression of a typical English garden today, which Goethe described as "heavenly" in a poem.