Saint Elizabeth

Stories and legends abound about this impressive woman’s life work. Showing incredible rigour, she voluntarily chose a path from the uppermost social position to abject poverty. A Thuringian landgrave and the daughter of the King of Hungary, Elizabeth was one of the most distinguished women of the High Middle Ages. Nonetheless, she devoted her life entirely to the Imitation of Christ and serving the very weakest members of society: an incredible act for a princess. At Neuenburg Castle she is said not only to have cared for a sick beggar, but to have put him in the landgraves’ bed to recover!

There is documentary evidence of Elizabeth’s presence at the castle for the years 1224/25. The double chapel dedicated to St. Elizabeth in the late Middle Ages was completed during her lifetime. Neuenburg Castle is thus a place not only where St. Elizabeth is worshipped, but also where she lived, as evidenced today by such prominent pieces as the late mediaeval Saint Elizabeth Tapestry or the 14th-century Neuenburg Elizabeth figurine.