For the museums at Heidecksburg Palace, the re-foundation of the state of Thuringia was an occasion to focus more on the history of the former principalities of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. The aim of the academic work is to contribute to the history of the emergence and development of Thuringia's diverse cultural landscape. The questions raised in the context of cultural history are intended to deepen the current state of knowledge, i.e. not only to deal with the history of the reigns of individual counts and princes.
The management of the museum therefore decided to publish the results of this research in the publication series »Beiträge zur schwarzburgischen Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte« (Contributions to Schwarzburg Art and Cultural History), which has now grown to ten volumes, with the ideational and material support of the Friends of Heidecksburg Palace. After the publication of the volume »Die Schwarzburg - Kulturgeschichte eines Schlosses« in 2008, numerous scholars worked on the project »Schloss Heidecksburg - Residenz der Grafen und Fürsten von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt«, the results of which were published in 2016. The contributions by fifteen authors from a wide range of research disciplines add further facets to and enrich the picture of the residential castle. With the publication of the first comprehensive monograph on the building history of Heidecksburg Palace, the latest findings were presented to the public in a special exhibition.
In addition, Heidecksburg Palace is the venue for scientific conferences of the »Rudolstädter Arbeitskreises zur Residenzkultur« (Rudolstadt Working Group on Residence Culture), which examines Central German residences and courts, particularly from the perspective of cultural history.
In 2018, an initially three-year project »The glass holdings of the Schwarzburg residences from the 16th to 18th centuries« was launched. The focus is on researching historical glass objects that were produced, traded, purchased and used between 1600 and 1800 in the territory of the counts or princes of Schwarzburg in Thuringia. Glass conducts a productive trialogue between the humanities, the museum and the natural sciences. The research project is based on cooperation between the Justus Liebig University Giessen and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Equal cooperation partner is the Arnstadt Castle Museum in Thuringia. Click here for further information on the glass project!