Celle castle was unique, but I honestly preferred the look and feel of the city better. The city had some unique firsts, for example, they were one of the first cities to use water pumps to handle the water that flowed through the city and around the castle. I also wasn’t a fan of how the castle, as it is now, has seemingly been turned into a full fledged museum and city town hall. Apparently, much of the original furniture of the castle was lost some time ago, and so everything inside the castle has been mostly refurbished. The only original thing to the building appeared to be the wooden timbers that supported it all.
This castle was given to the kings of Hanover (George V and Queen Marie from the Marienburg castle), as there was no one left in the family line to rule, as far as I am aware. It was then used as a residence for Caroline Matilda, a British-born Danish queen, who was sent to this castle after she had an affair with a man from Copenhagen.
Despite my general dislike for the castle, the rooms were still beautiful. They all had blown glass chandeliers and intricate wooden carvings which made up the ceilings. I also really liked the interactivity of the museum. From the perspective of a child, it wouldn’t be completely boring because there were activities that could be done. For example, one such activity Lucas and I did together, showed what ranks of people were allowed to sit in what kinds of chairs or if they had to stand in the presence of the King. You would touch an image of a person with an electrode, and then the chair, stool, or feet (for standing) with another electrode, and if they went together a light lit up and it made a sound. That was pretty cool, even for us, especially since we got to do it together.
As I mentioned, much of the castle has been turned into a museum that tells a bit of the history behind the rulers of Hannover, long before the various kingdoms of Germany became a single country. In this sense it was cool for us, we had just recently learned about King George V and his wife Marie, when we went to see the Marienburg castle, and so we saw references to them again here, which at least helped us relate a bit more to the material. Still, most of the museum consisted of giant paintings of the various lords and ladies, and so it isn’t necessarily a place that Lucas or I would often find ourselves in, but if you really like German history and appreciate art, then this place is probably for you. Due to COVID-19, only the museum section was opened, but online it does say that guided tours are normally available and through those tours you might get to see some older parts of the castle that haven’t been destroyed and rebuilt.
The city, on the other hand, was GORGEOUS. Many of the buildings were still old-style German with the timbers on the outside and intricate paintings and colors to boot. The dates on the buildings went back to the 1400s, at least! By the castle there was even a small farmers market going on as well, which seemed to highlight the beautiful buildings even more. It just all gave a feeling of being back in time a bit.
All in all, the castle does look great from the outside, and what it has to offer inside could definitely appeal to plenty of people, so definitely check it out if it crosses off all the criteria on your checklist. We also saw a wedding there, which we seem to be increasingly running into at our castle adventures as of late. Germans love using these castles for weddings, that is for sure.
That’s everything for now, thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time!
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