Renovation | Reinhardsbrunn Castle Chapel
An extraordinary venue
The chapel was completed just in time for Heritage Open Days 2025 and opened to the public as part of the first events held there. Although it no longer serves its original religious purpose, the chapel shines in new-old splendour and has become a unique venue.
A diverse and complex heritage
Reinhardsbrunn – once the ancestral monastery of the former Landgraves of Thuringia – is regarded as the birthplace of Thuringia. The monastery, and later the hunting lodge of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, built in the 17th century on its ruins, have been many things over the years: a sacred site of the German Middle Ages, a legendary hideout for the Nazis, a posh foreign-currency hotel in the GDR and a sad chapter in the Treuhand’s history.
For a long time, this castle, with its chapel, was left to fall into disrepair. Damage to the existing plasterwork, flaking of plaster due to severe damp, and missing stucco or decorative elements are the result of this long period of disuse. The aim of the restoration of these areas was to preserve the high-quality stucco-marble pilasters and original architectural features in the individual interior spaces.
Tailor-made products
Due to the varying substrates, the surfaces in the various existing areas had to be re-plastered or reworked using a range of carefully selected materials.
After pre-treating the vertical plaster surfaces by sanding them flat, removing salt efflorescence by dry sanding and applying the fire-retardant barrier maxit prim 2000, the existing gypsum-based wall surfaces were refurbished using maxit ip 27 hand-applied plaster as a skim coat reinforced with glass fibre mesh.
In the heavily damaged areas, the plastered surfaces were treated with maxit ip 380 HS – a specially formulated, sulphate-resistant lime plaster – due to the high sulphate content. Once the base coat had dried, these areas were finished with maxit ip 27.
The numerous decorative elements were prefabricated from stucco by the contractor and then fitted on site.