52°37′26″N10°04′39″E / 52.62389°N 10.07750°E /52.62389; 10.07750
| Celle Castle | |
|---|---|
 The facade of the castle which looks onto Celle'sAltstadt | |
  Celle Castle (Germany) Show map of Germany | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Renaissance architecture |
| Location | Celle,Lower Saxony,Germany |
| Coordinates | 52°37′26″N10°04′39″E / 52.62389°N 10.07750°E /52.62389; 10.07750 |
| Construction started | 980 AD |
Celle Castle (German:Schloss Celle) or, less commonly,Celle Palace, in the German town ofCelle inLower Saxony, was one of the residences of the House ofBrunswick-Lüneburg. Thisquadrangular building is the largest castle in the southernLüneburg Heath region.
Celle Castle is based on a fortifiedwall tower (Wehrturm) with the character of awater castle, that guarded aford over theRiver Aller. This first fortification, calledKellu, was built by aBrunonen count around 980 AD. Another forerunner of the castle, which may have been an extension of the wall tower, was founded in 1292 byOtto the Strict. The cellar vault and the lower stories of the watch tower have survived to the present day. Its ruins lie underneath the castle theatre. Around 1315 the actualCastrum Celle was first recorded. As a consequence of theWar of the Lüneburg Succession, in 1378 the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg moved theirResidenz fromLüneburg to Celle and began transforming theBurg, now encircled by ditches and embankments, into aSchloss. About a century later the castle was further expanded byFrederick the Pious from 1471 to 1478, and thecastle chapel was consecrated in 1485.Ernest I the Confessor had the castle decorated from 1530 in theRenaissance style. At the same time, between 1520 and 1560, the defences, in the form oframparts andbastions, were pushed further out. At this time the castle was typical of its era, aquadrangular building with a rectangular courtyard, massive corner towers, a large main tower and characteristic features ofWeser Renaissance.
From 1670 onwards alterations to the castle were carried out byDuke George William, which were intended to transform the old renaissance seat into a contemporaryResidenz. George William was keen on building, typical of the princes of his time, and made further changes that were intended to recall his time inItaly. The façades, that were copied fromVenetian buildings, were then given their present-day appearance. Notable features include the corona of gables that encircles the roofs, and the unusual shape of the domed towers. The addition of the castle theatre and theBaroque state rooms stem from this period.
On the death of George William in 1705 theabsolute rule of the dukes ended. ThePrincipality of Lüneburg subsequently passed, along with thePrincipality of Calenberg, to theKingdom of Hanover. The castle lost its political significance and stood empty again for a long time. From 1772 it was occupied by the British-born Danish queen,Caroline Matilda, the daughter ofFrederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, who had been banished to Celle as a result of her affair withJohann Friedrich Struensee of Copenhagen. The unhappy queen only lived at the Celle court until 1775, when she died at a relatively young age ofscarlet fever. In the 19th century, the castle was occasionally used by theHouse of Hanover as a summer residence. As a result,Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves had several interior alterations made in 1839 and 1840. During World War I, it was used as a detention camp for officers (Offizerslager or Oflag) by the German Army.
The castle still has a variety of rooms and halls that date back to different periods. The court chapel was converted after theReformation and has been preserved almost unchanged with itsrenaissance architecture. Thebaroque-style staterooms were created under George William and have also been preserved. In the Gothic Hall there are constantly changing exhibitions and in the East Wing is a section of Celle's Bomann Museum, which is dedicated to the history of theKingdom of Hanover. The historic castle rooms and the castle chapel restored between 1978 and 1981, may be visited as part of a guided tour.
The court theatre of the castle, theSchlosstheater Celle, is one of the oldest preserved theatres of its kind and one of the few baroque theatres in North Germany. It still has its own theatre company today.
The presentSchlosstheater was built on the instigation ofDuke George William, who before he came to power spent some time inVenice and came to know Italianopera whilst he was there. The theatre was designed by the Italian architectGiuseppe Arighini.[2] Construction work on the theatre began in 1670 and was largely finished by 1675. The duke hosted a succession of theatre companies, that he recruited, for example, from France, Italy and also nearby Hanover. On the death of the duke the theatre became orphaned until the short-lived stay ofCaroline Matilda, for whom the theatre was given a second gallery.
The theatre was conceived for the benefit of the court and was never intended to be open to the public, who were first allowed a moderate degree of access to plays at the end of the 18th century. The theatre was regularly used until the late 19th century but was closed in 1890 and fell into disuse. In 1935 it underwent a thorough renovation.
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Because the castle was never used for any military purposes, between 1785 and 1802 theouter bastions were dismantled and used asfill for the once deep, wide castle moats. In 1826 gardens were laid out in the vicinity of the castle by levelling and removing the defensive embankments. In their place, trees and shrubs were planted and lawns laid. In the 19th century, alandscape garden was created in the area immediately surrounding the castle. Since part of the park was given away for building residential accommodation around 1900, the park has retained an area of about 7 hectares (17 acres). The castle still sits on an island today that is surrounded by moats.
Outside the former defensive belt, but not far from the castle,George William had theFrench Garden ("Französischer Garten"), a baroque park designed on French lines, laid out in the late 17th century. This was later converted to an English landscape garden, but the former baroque layout can still be made out in certain areas of the park.
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