- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- 1786 · 18th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Style
- Neoclassical architecture
- Commissioned by
- William I, Elector of Hesse
- Architect
- Simon Louis du Ry
- Coordinates
- 51.3150°, 9.4161°
History
The palace was built between 1786 and 1798 for Landgrave William IX, later Elector of Hesse, on the site of the older Weissenstein castle. Simon Louis du Ry and Heinrich Christoph Jussow designed it, joining three wings into a Neoclassical whole at the foot of the hillside park. From 1807 to 1813 it was the residence of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, and after the defeat at Sedan in 1870 Emperor Napoleon III was held captive here. Around 1900 the palace served as Kaiser Wilhelm II's summer residence. An air raid in 1943 destroyed the central block, which was rebuilt in simplified form to house a museum. Since 2013 the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
What to see
The central wing holds the Old Masters Picture Gallery with its celebrated group of Rembrandts, as well as works by Rubens, van Dyck and Dürer, plus a collection of antiquities. The Weissenstein wing keeps interiors from the time of the electors and Jérôme Bonaparte. From the terrace the park's axis climbs towards the Hercules statue, and the park also holds the mock-Gothic Löwenburg castle and the cascading water displays.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q687186
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