Schloss Ehrenburg stands on the market edge of Coburg's old town, a grand ducal palace that served as the residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld from the seventeenth century onwards. The name translates roughly as "honour fortress," though by the time it reached its present form in the nineteenth century it was firmly a palace rather than a fortress, remodelled in English Gothic style at the behest of Duke Ernst I.
The state apartments are open for guided tours and show rooms in exceptional condition — Flemish tapestries, painted ceilings, and a giant throne room whose ceiling drips with plasterwork. The royal connection to Britain is pervasive: portraits of Victoria and Albert hang throughout, and the bedroom where Victoria slept during her visits still has its original furnishings. The palace's small museum section explains the improbable spread of the Saxe-Coburg dynasty to Belgium, Portugal, and the British and Bulgarian thrones.