Goethe House Weimar

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was given this house on the Frauenplan in 1794 having lived in it since 1782, and stayed until his death in 1832; it holds his study, library of over five thousand volumes, and his collections of minerals, prints and casts, which he treated as scientific work alongside his writing. The rooms were kept by his descendants and passed to the state in 1885 largely as he left them. His garden house in the park on the Ilm, a small cottage he used from 1776, is separately visitable. Weimar's classical sites, including the Schiller house and the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, were UNESCO-listed in 1998.

What's there

• The study and library - rooms kept as Goethe used them, with his books.
• The collections - minerals, prints and casts he assembled as scientific work.
• The garden house - a small cottage in the Ilm park, visited separately.
• The Anna Amalia Library - a rococo hall nearby, entered on timed tickets.

When to go

April to October; the house closes Mondays and uses timed entry, which sells out in season. The library's rococo hall has a strict daily visitor limit.

Before you go

Timed tickets are needed and the library hall caps numbers tightly. The house closes Mondays. Photography is restricted inside.

Nearby

Erfurt lies west; Jena is east.

Key facts