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Fire badly damages Renaissance palace

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Fire badly damages Renaissance palace
Schloss Ehrenstein on Tuesday. Photo: DPA

A huge fire has caused millions of euros worth of damage to a Renaissance palace in central Germany, parts of which date back more than 1,000 years.

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Schloss Ehrenstein in Ordruf, Thuringia, was badly damaged in the blaze which broke out in the middle of the day on Tuesday. Half of the roof was completely destroyed, a police spokeswoman said.

Two of the 22 fire fighters were injured at the scene, where they and more than 100 colleagues tried to contain the blaze.

A Frankish castle with a moat was first built on the site in 531, and the site has seen various incarnations of the building over the centuries including an abbey which was destroyed in a fire in 1184. The present palace dates back to the Renaissance.

From 1956 to 1966 the Soviet army used the buildings as a school but it was then pretty much abandoned.

In 1971 a reconstruction project began and the palace is now museum as well as home to the town library and archive.

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