Eisenberg

Eisenberg lies between Jena and Gera in eastern Thuringia. A town developed near a castle built for the margraves of Meissen in the twelfth century; it was described as a city in 1219, when a Cistercian convent was established here by transferring a community from Zwickau. Fortifications had already been recorded in 1171. The Leipzig partition of 1485 placed Eisenberg with the Ernestine branch of the Wettins, and the Reformation was introduced in 1524.

From 1681 to 1707 Eisenberg was the residence of a small Saxon duchy. Duke Christian rebuilt the older castle as Christiansburg between 1677 and 1692 and endowed it with a Baroque palace church. After his death, the town passed to Saxe-Altenburg. The short-lived court left its mark on the older town and its castle.