EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

A hugely imposing little town with a truly illustrious history and a mixed Franconian-Thuringian pedigree, COBURG lies about 50km northwest of Kulmbach. Following several changes of aristocratic ownership, it came into the hands of the powerful House of Wettin in 1353, and was initially regarded by them as a Saxon outpost within Franconia. In 1586, it was raised to the status of capital of one of the dynasty's splintered Saxon-Thuringian territories, the new Duchy of Saxe-Coburg. The ruling house proved to be masterly at self-promotion, particularly in the nineteenth century, when its clever dynastic marriage policy created ties with the royal families of Belgium, Bulgaria and Portugal as well as Great Britain, the last being achieved when Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, thus establishing the present British royal house, which tactfully renamed itself Windsor during World War I. This marriage in turn led to a union with Germany's ruling dynasty, the Hohenzollerns, when the couple's eldest child, Victoria, married the future Kaiser Friedrich III. In 1920, two years after the abdication of the last duke, the locals voted to join Bavaria - which proved a fortuitous choice, as it saved Coburg from the fate of all the other old Saxon-Thuringian principalities, which were incorporated into the GDR after World War II. As a virtual dead end, the town had a tough time economically during the decades of German division, but has recovered well.