ABSTRACT
THE Wartburg, about a mile south of Eisenach, is one of the finest old Gothic castles in Germany. Majestically crowning a steep hill, it commands a superb view of the lovely Thuringian forest. Surrounded by a moat and guarded by drawbridge and portcullis, the several buildings which unite to make up the pile are grouped around two courts. The largest hall, already old in Luther's day, is famous as having been, in the twelfth century, the meeting-place where the German bards, since immortalized in Wagner's opera, met to contend the palm. The fortress had been for generations the abode of the powerful, ostentatious landgraves of Thuringia, and was hallowed by the memory of St. Elizabeth of Marburg, the wife of one of them.
