To provide a melting and holding furnace, in which a level height of molten metal is detected with excellent accuracy without being affected by the molten metal and further heat dissipation is reduced, and to provide a control device for the melting and holding furnace.

The melting and holding furnace 100 is provided with: a melting chamber 10, in which a metallic material 12 is melted into molten metal 40; a holding chamber 20, which holds the molten metal 40, allowed to flow in from the melting chamber 10, at a predetermined temperature; and a pumping chamber 30, which communicates with the holding chamber 20 and pumps out the molten metal 40 into a casting machine 120. The pumping chamber 30 has: a heat insulating cover 32 for opening/closing a pumping opening 31 of the pumping chamber 30; and a 1st molten-metal level-height detector 33, which comprises a mirror 33b and a displacement gauge 33a that projects light to the surface of the molten metal in the pumping chamber 30 through the mirror 33b to detect its reflection light through the mirror 33b, and which detects the level height of the molten metal 40 in non-contact. The 1st molten-metal level-height detector 33 is disposed at a position where an angle between the surface of the molten metal and the light projected thereto is made acute and the opening/closing of the heat insulating cover 32 is not interrupted.