Jena, Thuringia

Christmas Market at the Market Square of Jena, Thuringia, Germany
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ChristmasMarketJena.jpg
Author: ReneS


Jena is the second largest city in Thuringia, Germany, after the state capital Erfurt. The city covers 114 sq km (44 sq mi) and has a population of 105,000 people (2012 estimate).

The history of Jena reaches back to 1182, when it was first documented in writing. The town converted to the Protestant faith following the Protestant Reformation in 1523. During this period the existing Dominican and Carmelite converts faced suppression.

A university was established in Jena in 1558. It helped put the town on the map as a center of idealist philosophy. Poets Goethe and Schiller met here in 1794. The encounter established for them a long-lasting friendship. The university makes Jena the biggest university town in Thuringia.

Jena suffered severe destruction from Allied bombing towards the end of the Second World War. After the war, it was incorporated into the German Democratic Republic, where it remained until reunification in 1990.

Jena Volkshaus
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jena_Volkshaus_5.jpg
Author: Andreas Praefcke

How to go to Jena

There are trains to Jena from Munich and Berlin, on the north-south line. The nearest train station on the east-west line, to Frankfurt and Leipzig, is in the city of Weimar a short distance away.

Places of Interest in Jena

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