Uelzen Holdenstedt: Museum & Castle Holdenstedt
Uelzen
The Museum Castle Holdenstedt - Regional Museum
Uelzen - collects and exhibits the following, partially as permanent displays
and partially as rotating exhibitions:
- Furniture from the Middle Ages to Art
Nouveau
- Artefacts of the minor arts
- Works by regional artists and artisan
craftsmen
- Glass collection Röver
- Works by the animal portrait artist Georg
Wolf
- Cultural history of the town and region of
Uelzen
History of Castle Holdenstedt
A castle complex in Holdenstedt was first
mentioned in records dating from the 13th century. It was demolished at the end
of the 16th century and replaced by a new building that can be seen on a Merian
engraving, the earliest known depiction of the castle.
The events of the Thirty Years War caused such
extensive damage that Christian Ludwig von der Wense erected the third castle
on the same site during the years 1700-1709. The original baroque façade fell
victim to yet another conversion in the year 1840. Today, the castle bears a
more simplified façade.
Some of the elaborate stucco work by the
Florentine Carlo Francesco Tagliata can still be seen in the rooms of the
castle.
The town of Uelzen acquired the castle in 1983
and made it available for cultural events. The completion of restoration work
in 1985 enabled the Regional Museum Uelzen to relocate from its previous
cramped premises to the castle.
Changing exhibitions are put on at the castle
by a local museum and heritage association (Museums- und Heimatverein des
Kreises Uelzen e. V.), Uelzen Art Association and the Cultural Management of
Uelzen.
Castle Holdenstedt also provides a ceremonious
setting for various events such as award ceremonies, speeches and weddings.
The "Holdenstedt Castle Weeks” renowned
well beyond the region’s borders are especially worthy of mention.
The Castle Park
The current state of the castle park is not the
result of a uniform concept, as early illustrations show. The surrounding park
landscape in the English style was formed gradually over the course of around a
hundred years.
The moat created at the end of the 18th century
has been filled in. Today, only the Hardau, a small heath stream, flows behind
the castle. One of the castle’s former owners acquired the gate to the town of
Veersen that is now the gate to the park. The pavilion at the back of the park
once stood in a private garden in Veersser Strasse, Uelzen.
The pavilion was removed from the plot in 1971
to make way for the new premises of Kreissparkasse Uelzen (now: Sparkasse Uelzen)
and then installed in the park in 1988.
