Ketschendorf Castle (Schloss Ketschendorf)

Ketschendorf Castle was built in 1803 by order of Duchess Auguste, wife of Franz Friedrich Anton of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, as a summer castle in Empire style. After the duke’s death in 1806, it remained Auguste’s widow’s residence. In 1868, her grandson Ernst II sold the estate, including the park, to the then famous French opera singer Rosine Stoltz, who was given a peerage. The so-called “Baroness of Ketschendorf” had the partially dilapidated castle demolished and rebuilt according to plans by the Coburg master builder Georg Konrad Rothbart. He created a larger and more solid castle with an almost square ground plan in only one year of construction time. Today, the building is considered a prime example of the neo-Gothic castle style in the Coburg region. All four sides are flanked by octagonal, crenellated corner towers. From 1956, the building housed a youth hostel for a long time. In 2012 and 2013, it served as a film set for the cinema production of the novel series “Rubinrot”. Since 2013, the Coburg-based company Kaeser Kompressoren has owned Ketschendorf Castle.