Ketschendorf Palace was originally built in 1803 by order of Duchess Auguste, wife of Franz Friedrich Anton of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, as a summer residence in Empire style.
After the duke’s death in 1806, it remained the widow’s residence. In 1868, her grandson Ernst II sold the estate including the park to the famous French opera singer Rosine Stoltz, who was granted a title of nobility. Known as the Baroness of Ketschendorf, she had the dilapidated palace demolished and rebuilt by Coburg master builder Georg Konrad Rothbart. Rothbart transformed the building into a larger and more solid palace with an almost square ground plan, completing the work in just one year. Today, the palace is a prime example of Neo-Gothic architecture in the Coburg region, with all four corners flanked by octagonal, crenellated towers. From 1956, the building served as a youth hostel for many years. It also became a film set for the cinema adaptation of the novel ‘Rubinrot’ in 2012 and 2013. Since 2013, the palace has been owned by the Coburg-based company Kaeser Kompressoren. Public interior tours are not possible.