He received Kronach and the surrounding area, the Praedium Crana, in 1122 as a gift from Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, in thanks for the Otto's participation in the Concordat of Worms.

[3] The probable site of this construction was uncovered by archeologists in 1989, who discovered the foundations of a tower house dated to the 12th century about three kilometers north of the current town center.

However, due to the insufficient size of his army, Alcibiades was unable to effectively put the heavily fortified town or castle under siege and retreated.

[1] After the war ended, it was decided that the fortress was insufficiently fortified, so Prince-Bishop Veit von Würzburg oversaw the construction of a third layer of fortification consisting of four mostly wood and earth bastions.

[6][7] Veit also had a renaissance-style palace built inside the castle, with the hope that Kronach could become the Prince-Bishopric's third residence city, after Bamberg and Forchheim.

This hope never materialized, however, starting in the early 17th century, Kronach became the refuge of choice for the Prince-Bishops, their treasures, and their archives at times when Bamberg was threatened by war.

For two years, from 1632 to 1634, Kronach was placed under siege and subjected to countless attacks by the marauding Swedish Army and its German allies, including Saxony-Coburg and Bayreuth.

The town and fortress famously remained uncaptured, largely owing to the efforts of Kronach's women, who halted a Swedish breach of the city walls with boiling liquids.

After the Swedes were no longer an imminent threat, renovations started, overseen by Prince-Bishop Philipp Valentin Voit von Rieneck.

[1][10] The modernization measures were tested in 1759 during the Seven Years' War, when Prussian Major General Gottfried von Knobloch attempted to shell Kronach into submission.

[1] During World War II, the fortress became part of a forced-labor camp for Polish and Soviet prisoners, who lived there and were made to work at the Rosenthal Porcelain factory nearby.

The gallery mainly holds Franconian art from the 13th to the 16th century, including works by masters such as Veit Stoss, Adam Kraft, Tilman Riemenschneider, and especially Kronach's native son Lucas Cranach the Elder.