Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [241]
The square is anchored by a statue of Prince-Elector Johann Friedrich I, founder of Jena’s university and popularly known as ‘Hanfried’. The handsome building with the half-timbered upper section at the northern end of the square contains the Stadtmuseum & Kunstsammlung Jena (City Museum & Art Collection; 498 050; www.stadtmuseum.jena.de, in German; Markt 7; adult/concession €4/2.50; 10am-5pm Tue, Wed & Fri, 2‑10pm Thu, 11am-6pm Sat & Sun). Learn how the city evolved into a centre of philosophy and science, what the Seven Miracles are all about and check out the latest art exhibit.
North of the museum, the Stadtkirche St Michael (Parish Church; Kirchplatz; 12.30-5pm Mon, 10am-5pm Tue-Sun May-Sep) would be just another Gothic church if it didn’t possess Martin Luther’s original engraved tombstone (yep, the one in Wittenberg’s Schlosskirche is actually a 19th-century replica).
UNIVERSITÄT JENA
Jena’s university was founded as Collegium Jenense in 1558, in a former monastery on Kollegiengasse. Parts of it are still there; enter the courtyard to admire the coat of arms of Johann Friedrich I and to check out the free exhibit (in German) on the university’s illustrious history.
West of here across Leutragraben, in an excellent example of urban recycling, the former Zeiss optics factory is now the university’s main campus. Buildings wrap around Ernst-Abbe-Platz, dotted with abstract sculptures by Frank Stella; on the south side is the Goethe Galerie shopping mall.
The university headquarters (Füstengraben 1) are in a century-old complex on the northeastern edge of the Altstadt. Step inside to admire a Minerva bust by Rodin and a wall-sized painting showing Jena students going off to fight against Napoléon.
GOETHE & SCHILLER
As minister for the elector of Saxe-Weimar, Goethe visited Jena many times, regulating the flow of the Saale, building streets, designing the botanic garden, cataloguing the university library or discovering the obscure human central jawbone. Most of the time, he stayed in the tiny house that’s now the Goethe Gedenkstätte (Goethe Memorial; 949 009; Fürstengraben 26; adult/concession €1/0.50; 11am-3pm Wed-Sun Apr-Oct). Exhibits illustrate his accomplishments as a natural scientist, poet and politician. Goethe himself planted the ginkgo tree just east of here, now part of the Botanischer Garten (botanic garden; 949 274; adult/concession €3/1.50; 9am-6pm mid-May–mid-Sep, to 5pm mid-Sep–mid-May), the second-oldest in Germany, with more than 12,000 plants from every climatic zone on earth.
Goethe is also credited with recruiting Schiller to Jena University in 1789. The playwright enjoyed Jena so much that he stayed for 10 years, longer than anywhere else, in what is now known as Schillers Gartenhaus (Schiller’s Garden House; 931 188; Schillergässchen 2; adult/concession €2.50/1.30; 11am-5pm Tue-Sun Apr-Oct, 11am-5pm Tue-Sat Nov-Mar). He wrote Wallenstein in the little wooden shack in the garden, where he and Goethe liked to wax philosophical.
CITY OF SCIENCE
Carl Zeiss, Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott were three pioneers who put Jena on the scientific map. Zeiss began building rudimentary microscopes in 1846 and, with Abbe’s help, developed the first scientific microscope in 1857. Together with Otto Schott, the founder of Jenaer Glasswerke (glass works), they pioneered the production of optical precision instruments, which eventually propelled Jena to global prominence in the early 20th century.
Their life stories and the evolution of optical technology are the themes of the Optisches Museum (Optical Museum; 443 165; Carl-Zeiss-Platz 12; adult/concession €5/4; 10am-4.30pm Tue-Fri, 11am-5pm Sat). Tour Zeiss’ recreated 1866 workshop, then