One of the finest Rococo palaces in Germany sits in the centre of picturesque Wilhelmsthal Park near Calden to the north of Kassel. The three-wing structure, built between 1747 and 1761 by Landgrave Wilhelm VIII (1751–1760) of Hesse Kassel to serve as a maison de plaisance, still gives an impression of what life was like for princes and servants at a ruler's court in the late Absolutist era thanks to the historical layout of the rooms, which has survived almost unchanged.

The decorator, Johann August Nahl the Elder (1710–1781), covered the walls and ceilings with valuable fabrics and beautifully detailed floral and rocaille ornaments, furnishing every room of the princely apartments with its own individual splendour. Notable features are the state dining room on the ground floor and the so-called Gallery of Beauties – a series of portraits depicting attractive ladies of the court of Wilhelm VIII that still grace the two anterooms of the Landgrave's apartment. 

The historical ambiente is completed by valuable furniture including a small »peacock feather« chest of drawers dated c. 1755 and considered unique because of its inlaid decor. Lacquered French furniture and a large collection of East Asian and European china add some more highlights to an exquisite interior.

https://museum-kassel.de

Schloss Wilhelmsthal

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Schloss Wilhelmshöhe is a Neoclassical palace located in Bad Wilhelmshöhe (de), a part of Kassel, Germany. It was built for Landgrave Wilhelm (William) IX of Hesse in the late 18th century. Emperor Wilhelm II made extensive use of it as a summer residence and personal retreat.

Today, the palace houses the art gallery Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, part of Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel (de). Since 2013, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe.

Beginning in the 12th century the site was used as a monastery. Under Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse 1504-1567 it was secularised and used as a castle. This castle was replaced by a new one from 1606 to 1610 by Landgrave Moritz. The current Neoclassical Schloss Wilhelmshöhe was designed by architects Simon Louis du Ry and Heinrich Christoph Jussow (de) from 1786 to 1798 for Landgrave William IX of Hesse.

As king of the French puppet state Kingdom of Westphalia, Jérôme Bonaparte renamed it Napoleonshöhe and appointed his Head Chamberlain Heinrich von Blumenthal as its governor, with instructions to supervise extensive renovations. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the Prussian King offered the defeated Emperor Napoleon III accommodation there.

From 1899 to 1918, Wilhelmshöhe was the summer residence of the German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1918, after the armistice ended World War I, the Oberste Heeresleitung, the High Command of the Germany Army under Paul von Hindenburg was moved here from Spa (Belgium) to organize and lead the withdrawal and demobilization of the German troops. It remained at Wilhelmshöhe until February 1919, when it moved to Kolberg.

The middle tract of the castle was mostly destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II. The first reconstruction was made in 1968-1974 by the functionalist architect Paul Friedrich Posenenske. He completely reconstructed the exterior but changed the structure of the interior for its new function as an art museum. From 1994 to 2000 another renovation was made to bring it closer to the original structure.

Since 2013, the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, which includes the palace has been a World Heritage Site of UNESCO.

Today the Wilhelmshöhe Castle Museum houses the antiquities collection, the Gallery of the Old Masters (which includes one of the world's largest Rembrandt collections) and the Graphic Arts Collection.

Schloss Wilhelmshöhe

Die Löwenburg ist ein ab 1793 erbautes Lustschloss im Kasseler Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe.

Das als künstliche Burgruine errichtete Schloss steht oberhalb des Schlosses Wilhelmshöhe im südlichen Teil des Bergparks und damit südlich der Sichtachse Schloss Wilhelmshöhe-Herkules auf etwa 350 m ü. NN am Ostrand des Hohen Habichtswaldes. Die Löwenburg diente ihrem Bauherrn Landgraf Wilhelm IX. von Hessen-Kassel als privater Rückzugsort und wurde 1821 auch seine Grabstätte. Kunstgeschichtlich gilt die Anlage als wegweisend, als eines der ersten bedeutenden Gebäude der Neugotik in Deutschland.

Geschichte

Das einer Höhenburg nachempfundene Schloss entstand nach Entwürfen von Heinrich Christoph Jussow zwischen 1793 und 1801, also Jahrhunderte nach der eigentlichen Bauphase von Burgen in Deutschland. Sie ist die Nachahmung einer mittelalterlichen Ritterburg und wurde, romantisch historisierend, bewusst als künstliche Ruine errichtet. Zunächst nur als ruinöser Turm mit Nebengebäude geplant, entstand schließlich eine komplette Burganlage, die sich um einen Innenhof gruppiert. Die Anlage diente dem Landgrafen als Wohnsitz für sich und seine Mätresse Karoline von Schlotheim. 1821 wurde der 1803 zum Kurfürsten Wilhelm I. erhobene Landgraf in der Gruft unter der Burgkapelle bestattet. Die Löwenburg wurde von Beginn an aus wenig witterungsbeständigem Habichtswälder Tuff errichtet, der nahe der Baustelle verfügbar war und einfach zu bearbeiten ist.

Zweiter Weltkrieg und die Folgen
Bis ins Jahr 1945 flogen die Royal Air Force und die United States Army Air Forces mehrere Angriffe auf Kassel. Den schwersten Angriff erlebte die Stadt am 22. Oktober 1943. Aufgrund der Rüstungsindustrie und vor allem durch die dichte Bebauung im Altstadtbereich mit den leicht Feuer fangenden Fachwerkhäusern rückte Kassel gemäß der Area Bombing Directive bereits früh in die Liste der Städte, für die ein Brandbombenangriff besonders geeignet erschien. Dabei wurde der Bergfried der Löwenburg größtenteils zerstört (übrig blieb nur der Treppenturm mit einigen Mauerresten) und weite Teile der Anlage, darunter der Küchenbau und der Verbinderbau, schwer beschädigt. Der Wiederaufbau geschah in den Nachkriegsjahren recht zweckmäßig und war eher durch Funktionalität denn durch Detailtreue gekennzeichnet. Im Jahr 1957 wurden umfangreiche Umbauarbeiten im Damenbau vorgenommen, die das Ziel hatten, geborgenes Inventar aus dem zerstörten Bergfried aufnehmen zu können. Die Arbeiten sind bis heute nicht abgeschlossen. Der Bergfried wird gegenwärtig rekonstruiert und soll im Jahr 2022 mit einer dann in 25 Metern errichteten Aussichtsplattform wiedereröffnet werden.

Löwenburg

The Sababurg, first called the Zappenburg, then Zapfenburg and today, after the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Sleeping Beauty Castle (German: Dornröschenschloss), is the ruin of a hill castle in the legendary Reinhardswald, a forested upland that runs through the North Hessian county of Kassel. Sababurg is also the name of a district of the town of Hofgeismar in which the castle is found.

The hill castle appears in 1334 as the Zappenburg to protect pilgrims to the nearby pilgrimage site of Gottsbüren. In 1490, the hunting lodge of Zapfenburg grew out of the medieval castle site. After 1957 the site was restored and since 1959 it has housed an hotel. Together with the Trendelburg and Krukenburg the present ruins belong to the three best known castles in the Reinhardswald region, although the latter is just outside this forest. In the surrounding area is the Sababurg Wildlife Park and the virgin forest of Urwald Sababurg. The concept for the board game, Enchanted Forest, was developed from the castle.

The Sababurg stands in the heart of the Reinhardswald in the village of Sababurg in the east-northeast of the Hofgeismar borough of Beberbeck (an estate settlement with a castle). It is located between Beberbeck, about 4.5 km west-southwest of the ruins, and Gottsbüren (village east of Trendelburg), around 4.5 km north-northwest (each as the crow flies). The ruins stand on a relatively open basalt kuppe at an elevation of about 315 m above sea level (NHN). Southwest and below the castle is the Sababurg Wildlife Park, through which the little stream of Donnebach, an eastern and right-hand tributary of the Holzape, runs in a northwesterly direction. The ruins, village and wildlife park are an exclave of Hofgeismar, surrounded by the unparished area of Gutsbezirk Reinhardswald, in which the Urwald Sababurg lies on the other side of the park.

Construction on the Zappenburg (formerly: Zappaborgck and Zappenborgck) began on 19 April 1334 to protect and guard pilgrims to the nearby pilgrimage site of Gottsbüren, "where in 1330 the uncorrupted body of Jesus is supposed to have been found". It was founded by the Bishopric of Mainz, which was in constant competition with the Landgraviate of Hesse, the Bishopric of Paderborn and the Duchy of Brunswick, whose territories virtually bordered on one another here. The construction was probably funded by income from the pilgrimages. With the completion of the work in 1336 Arnold of Portenhagen became the first castellan or Burgmann.

In 1346 there was a conflict in which Mainz was defeated. The castle was divided between the Landgraviate of Hesse and the Bishopric of Paderborn and, in 1455, described as "abandoned". The castle went entirely into the possession of Hesse in 1462 after the end of the Mainz Diocesan Feud.

In 1490 Landgrave William I (1466–1515) "built a fine hunting lodge on the foundation walls of the original site, which was to be a venue for innumerable prestigious festivals and gatherings for 300 years". After this rebuilding or remodelling there was a significant requirement for drinking water for people and animals. This was the catalyst for the construction of a water pipe. In 1508 construction begain on the palas, which was finished under his nephew Philip I (1504–1567) in 1519. A stud farm was also laid out.

The site of the Sababurg has been gradually restored by the state of Hesse since 1957 and opened to the public. From 1959 the ruins were converted into a high class hotel with restaurant and café that was opened in 1960. In addition it houses a theatre, the SabaBurgTheater. In 1987 the first municipal wedding venue in Germany located outside of a town hall was established at the Sababurg. In 2002 a second, larger wdding room was opened.

Of the original defences of the Sababurg, restoration work has uncovered parts of the enceinte with its flanking gate and ditche and bank works. Only the outer walls of the palas have survived. In addition to the two mighty corner towers with their welschen Hauben, which are used by the hotel, a small staircase tower has also survived. The chancellery building was expanded in 1976 by a modern extension.

Sababurg

As the Diemel meanders towards the Weser it forms a sharp curve around a rocky mountain ridge, which in ancient times was called “Trindirberg”, probably derived from the old village Trende in the West, which has completely disappeared by today.
Before 1300, Conrad the 3rd of Schöneberg built a fortress on this very hill to protect the country road leading from Kassel to Bremen. At the same time a settlement was formed in front of the castle site.

In 1305, the Earl Henry the 1st and the bishop of Paderborn each bought half of the castle and the Hesse part of it became tenure of Paderborn. Tenant in those times was the family “von Stoghusen”, which resided at the castle for four generations.
1443 and 1456 the fortress construction was restored after major fires.

After the reconstruction, castle Trendelburg was adapted to its present form. A tower 38 metres in height containing four defense bays and a pentagonal ring wall including four small circular towers extend this ensemble. Within the living quarters, constructed during the 15th and 17th century, the remains of a late Gothic chapel with a ribbed vault survive to date. Presently, the Trendelburg Registry Office conducts wedding ceremonies therein.
During the thirty-year-war Tilly’s troops occupied the castle which was destroyed by the Croatians in 1637. In the seven-year-war Trendelburg was occupied by the French, who were then driven away through artillery attacks by Duke Ferdinand the 5th of Brunswick.

In 1901, Colonel Adalbert of Stockhausen, probably a descendant of the “von Stoghusens”, bought the castle.

In 1996 the castle was taken over by Dr. Lohbeck-Enterprise-Group – its re-opening securing the castle’s long-term future for discerning visitors.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair…..” if you believe the Bros. Grimm – and we do – beautiful Rapunzel once lived here and let down her hair from her tower.

https://www.burg-hotel-trendelburg.com