Eisenach, a town of Saxe-Weimar, is beautifully situated on the Hörsel, at the north-western verge of the Thuringian Forest, 69 miles by rail SE. of Cassel, and 49 W. of Weimar. Once the capital of a principality, Eisenach is still a thriving and industrious town, with wide, clean, and well-paved streets. It has a ducal palace (1742), now used as a court-house; a spacious market-place, and manufactures of art pottery, leather, &c. Sebastian Bach, of whom a statue was erected in 1884, was a native; and Fritz Reuter died at Eisenach in 1874. Pop. (1875) 16,163; (1890) 21,399.
On an eminence rising 600 feet above the town, engirt by forests, stands the castle of Wartburg, founded in 1067, and till 1440 the residence of the Landgrave of Thuringia. It is famous as the spot where the Minnesingers (q.v.) assembled to hold a poetic contest ('the war of the Wartburg') about 1207; as the home of St Elizabeth (1511-27); and as the ten months' asylum to which Luther was carried by the Elector of Saxony (May 1521). The chapel in which Luther preached, as well as the chamber which he occupied, and in which he discomfited the Evil One by throwing the inkstand at his head, is still pointed out. The whole pile has been magnificently restored since 1851.