The Baroque palace from the 17th century, with the church Schlosskirche where a number of works by Johann Sebastian Bach were premiered, was replaced by a Neoclassical structure after a fire in 1774.

From 1923, the building has housed the Schlossmuseum, a museum with a focus on paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries and works of art related to Weimar, a cultural centre.

[4] In the 1650s Johann Moritz Richter was engaged by Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Weimar to modify the design to a symmetrical Baroque structure with three wings, open to the south.

Duchess Anna Amalia, as regent for her young son, made her court into a centre of arts.

Duke Carl August formed a commission for its reconstruction directed by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who had arrived at the court in 1775.

The wing contained the so-called Dichterzimmer (poets' rooms), initiated by Duchess Maria Pavlovna.