Back to the German version

Eisenach and the Wartburg Castle are inseparable, and the same goes for the Carthusian Garden and the famous castle. The views of the castle are the predominant way of connecting the  Carthusian Garden with the surrounding landscape. Time and again the view of the Wartburg castle from the spot with ‘the spreading lime trees’ on the edge of the upper garden has been  praised - even as early as 1808. From this location (Lindenplatz) you can also look down over the lower part of the gardens, where the monument to Grand Duke Carl Alexander (1818-1901)  stands in the western corner.

The court gardener, Hermann Jäger (1815-1890), described ‘his’ Carthusian garden in 1871 as follows: “It is not large, and aside from the greenhouses and the court gardener’s living quarters  there are no buildings. Nonetheless, these grounds work a certain magic on its visitors. Above all the best view of the Wartburg castle is from here, where is it appears greater and higher than  from other angles.”

In 1909, the monument to Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach was unveiled with great ceremony (see photo). Its location at the edge of the garden is not an accident. It  was under his rule that the garden was significantly extended to the west and south, and it was achieved with the expertise of his Eisenach court gardener, Jäger. From where the monument  stands, Carl Alexander would always ‘have an eye’ on ‘his’ castle. The Wartburg castle was the grand duke’s favourite building. Carl Alexander was the one to commission extensive and  expensive renovations to the castle in the 19th century and to reestablish the castle as a place of national significance in the German memory. The statue was created by the artist Hermann  Kurt Hosaeus (1875-1958), who came from Eisenach. The framing of the Carl Alexander Monument with a trimmed lime tree backdrop took place at about the same time as the monument  was inaugurated.

In 1873 the court gardener Jäger (1815-1890) drew up new plans to extend the Carthusian Garden to the south, and therefore to connect it with the Johannistal valley.