Gotha Observatory

Gotha (German: Landkreis Gotha) is a Kreis (district) in western central Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis, Sömmerda, the Kreis-free city Erfurt, Ilm-Kreis, Schmalkalden-Meiningen and the Wartburgkreis.

Gotha station is the main station of Gotha in the German state of Thuringia. It is served by InterCity trains and every two hours by Intercity-Express trains on the Thuringian Railway. Services on the Gotha–Leinefelde line to the north also serve the station. Passenger services on the Ohra Valley Railway (Ohratalbahn) to the south ended in December 2011.

The Gotha tramway network is a network of tramways forming part of the public transport system in Gotha, a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. The network was opened in 1894 with an electrified system implemented by Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft. It is currently operated by Thüringerwaldbahn und Straßenbahn Gotha GmbH (TWSB), and integrated in the Verkehrsverbund Mittelthüringen (VMT).

In German transit, Gotha Ost station (German: Bahnhof Gotha Ost) is a railway station in the municipality of Gotha, located in the Gotha district in Thuringia.

Schloss Friedrichsthal is an 18th-century palace located in Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. It is located east of Friedenstein Palace.

Günthersleben-Wechmar is a former municipality in the German state (Bundesland) of Thuringia in the district of Gotha. Since July 2018, it is part of the municipality Drei Gleichen. The village of Wechmar is notable for having been the home of the Bach family of musicians and composers.

The Ducal Museum Gotha (German: Herzogliches Museum Gotha) is a museum in the German city of Gotha, located in the Schlosspark to the south of the Schloss Friedenstein. Its collection was the art collection of the former Duchy of Saxe-Gotha, consisting of Egyptian and Greco-Roman antiquities, Renaissance paintings such as The Lovers, Chinese and Japanese art, and sculptures from various eras. Reopening in 2013, it is housed in a 19th-century Neo-Renaissance building owned by the city, whilst the museum itself and its collections are managed by the Friedenstein Castle Foundation Gotha (Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha), founded in 2004. Martin Eberle has been the Foundation's director since 2007.

The Museum of Nature Gotha (German - Museum der Natur Gotha) is a museum in the German city of Gotha. Since 2004 it has been one of four museums run by the Schloss Friedenstein Foundation Gotha (Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha), named after the Schloss Friedenstein in the city. Particularly notable are the 1952-1954 hunting and animal-scene diorama backgrounds created by Friedrich Reimann, who also designed the murals in the entrance hall and stairwell. Its collections cover geology, palaeontology and zoology and were begun in the 17th century by the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. When they and the ducal art collections outgrew the Schloss, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha built a new Ducal Museum for the paintings, antiquities, plaster casts and the nature cabinet between 1864 and 1879. After much of the art collections were looted by the Soviets in 1945, the natural science collections were moved into the Ducal Museum and remained there after most of the art returned in 1956, being expanded by the addition of the Naturkundliche Heimatmuseum's collections. After being remodelled, the former Ducal Museum building reopened on 1 August 1954 as the Biologische Zentralmuseum (Central Biological Museum). Thuringia's largest natural history museum, it was later renamed the Naturkundemuseum (Natural History Museum) before taking on its present name in 1971. The natural history, geology and palaeontology collections returned to the Schloss in 2010, where they still reside.

The Schlosspark Gotha is the park and gardens originally attached to the Schloss Friedenstein in the German city of Gotha. It covers 37 hectares, making it one of the country's largest parks. To the Schloss' south is one of the oldest landscape gardens outside the United Kingdom, first designed in 1765. Whilst a guest of Prince August of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg between 1775 and 1801, the poet and writer Goethe was a frequent visitor to the park. The Schlosspark was voted the fourth most beautiful park in central Germany by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk listeners. The English Garden in particular is noted for its old trees, including 500-year-old oaks. The park's overall history was explored in the temporary exhibition "Gotha – im Reich der Göttin Freiheit" at the Museum of Nature Gotha in 2007 during the Gotha Garden Summer festival held that year.

Friedenstein Palace (German: Schloss Friedenstein) is an early Baroque palace built in the mid-17th century by Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha at Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. In Germany, Friedenstein was one of the largest palaces of its time and one of the first Baroque palaces ever built. Friedenstein served as the main seat of the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha and later as one of the residences of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, closely linked with the royal family of Great Britain through the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The final two ruling Dukes were both princes of the United Kingdom. The palace complex today houses several museums. It is also notable for hosting the Ekhof-Theater, one of the oldest theatres in operation in Germany, still featuring the original Baroque machinery for changing the scenery.

Gotha (German: [ˈɡoːtaː]) is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of Erfurt and 25 km (16 miles) east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918. The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha originating here spawned many European rulers, including the royal houses of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal (until 1910) and Bulgaria (until 1946). In the Middle Ages, Gotha was a rich trading town on the trade route Via Regia and between 1650 and 1850, Gotha saw a cultural heyday as a centre of sciences and arts, fostered by the dukes of Saxe-Gotha. The first duke, Ernest the Pious, was famous for his wise rule. In the 18th century, the Almanach de Gotha was first published in the city. The publisher Justus Perthes and the encyclopedist Joseph Meyer made Gotha a leading centre of German publishing around 1800. In the early 19th century, Gotha was a birthplace of the German insurance business. The SPD was founded in Gotha in 1875 by merging two predecessors. In that period Gotha became an industrial centre, with companies such as the Gothaer Waggonfabrik, a producer of trams and later aeroplanes. The main sights of Gotha are the early-modern Friedenstein Castle, one of the largest Renaissance Baroque castles in Germany, the medieval city centre and the Gründerzeit buildings of 19th-century commercial boom. Gotha lies in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin in a flat and agricultural landscape.

Schwabhausen is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany.