- Type
- Palace / château
- Origins
- 1292 · 13th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Lower Saxony, Germany
- Style
- Renaissance architecture
- Commissioned by
- George William of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle, William the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
- Architect
- Lorenzo Bedogni, Giuseppe Arighini
- Coordinates
- 52.6239°, 10.0775°
History
The castle grew from a tower guarding a ford over the Aller, and in 1292 Duke Otto the Strict founded a stronghold here; its cellars and the lower storeys of its tower survive beneath the present theatre. After the War of the Lüneburg Succession the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg moved their residence to Celle from 1378 and began turning the moated castle into a palace; Frederick the Pious enlarged it in 1471–1478, and from 1530 Ernest I the Confessor gave it Renaissance decoration. From 1670 Duke George William remodelled it as a Baroque residence, giving the façades their Venetian-inspired look with a ring of gables and domed towers and adding the state apartments and the theatre. After his death in 1705 the castle lost its importance; from 1772 to 1775 it was home to the exiled Danish queen Caroline Matilda, who died in Celle at the age of 23. In the 19th century the kings of Hanover used it as an occasional summer residence.
What to see
The east wing houses the Residence Museum on the history of the Guelph dynasty and the Kingdom of Hanover, the Gothic Hall hosts changing exhibitions, and the Baroque state apartments and the castle chapel can be seen on guided tours. The chapel, refitted in 1565–1576, keeps an almost unaltered Lutheran interior with 78 paintings from the workshop of Marten de Vos and is viewed from behind a glass wall to protect them. The castle theatre of the 1670s still has its own company and stages regular performances. The castle stands on a moated island in a landscape park of about 7 hectares.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q472403
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