Meiningen

Meiningen – the theatre immediately comes to mind. But there is so much more to discover in the town, for example its two large parks, the English Garden and the Schlosspark.

One begins right behind the State Theatre, the second spreads out not far away behind Elisabethenburg Palace. They are green works of art, landscape parks in the English style that show the design sense of the 18th century.

Other works of art in the city are made of stone. Around 250 individual monuments can be counted in Meiningen, plus 16 monument ensembles.
Most of the monuments are villas built around 1900 and grouped in separate quarters around the town centre. Here, as with the magnificent buildings in Bernhardstraße or Elisabethenburg, a baroque palace, Meiningen’s master builders have left their mark.

Those who want to combine cultural and natural enjoyment can do so by taking the Brahms hiking trail, which follows the composer’s daily two-and-a-half-kilometre walk on the Herrenberg.

For lovers of culture, there is an unmanageable abundance of thousands of events every year at various festivals, series and, of course, in the theatre. Fans of technology get their money’s worth at the Meiningen steam locomotive works, and worthwhile side trips are visits to the fairy tale cave in nearby Walldorf and the prison museum in Obermaßfeld.