Kassel Travel Guide

Wilhelmshöhe park is a remarkable place and has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its most striking attraction is the statue of Hercules, Kassel's famous landmark. Other highlights include fountains, a miniature temple, the remains of a Chinese village and Wilhelmshöhe Palace. A phenomenal synthesis of the arts featuring natural spectacles, architectural gems, various period styles and curiosities. The area of the park is 2.4 square kilometers (590 acres), making it the largest European hillside park, and second largest park on a mountain slope in the world. Construction of the Bergpark, or "mountain park", began in 1696 and took about 150 years.

The palace in the park now is a museum and houses a world-famous wallpaper collection, an important collection of Graeco-Roman antiques and a fine gallery of paintings comprising the second largest collection of Rembrandts in Germany.

Karlsaue Park along the Fulda River was established in the 16th century. It is famous for the Orangerie, a palace built in 1701 as a summer residence for the landgraves. Today there is also a planetarium in the park.

On May 23rd 1779, after 10 years of construction, the opening of the first public museum building on the European continent - the museum Fridericianum – was celebrated. Almost thirty years later the youngest brother of Napoleon, Jérôme Bonaparte, by then king of Westphalia, converted the museum into the Palais des Ètats, a house of parliament with representation rooms. After his banishment in 1813, the building was turned back into a museum, but then no longer followed the idea of art and science penned by the dynasty, instead now fully concentrated on its museal collection.

After WWII the ruins of the Fridericianum became the cultural heart of the first world documenta exhibition, founded by Arnold Bode in 1955. The successful history of documenta is well-known; its 12th edition just closed the doors on September 12th 2007. Since 1988 the space has also been used for permanent and temporary art shows which take place in-between the documenta.

Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 11am – 6pm.

Admission: Adults 5 €, Concessions 3 €, Children under 12 years free, Admission is free for all visitors on Wednesdays.

Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) are two of the leading intellectuals in German and European cultural history They shot to fame with their collection of fairy tales, but their pioneering work in the fields of Germanic language and literature, law, history and mythology as well as their political activity are also highly significant. The museum, which was established in 1959, is an institution with an international outlook. Its collections include documents that illustrate the life and works of the Brothers Grimm and their worldwide influence. The exhibition details the most important places where the Brothers Grimm lived and worked in chronological order and in relation to their scientific and political activities. The famous Grimms' fairy tales, which are firmly rooted in our culture, can be found in an appropriately themed room. The exhibition rooms are located in the baroque-style Palais Bellevue which was originally designed as an observatory for Hesse’s Landgrave Karl in 1714 by the French architect Paul du Ry. Multilingual guided tours on request.

The Natural History Museum in the Ottoneum has its roots in an art collection created in 1568 by Landgrave Wilhelm IV, which also contained a number of natural history items. Its permanent exhibition, including world-class botanical, geological, zoological and aquatic collections, introduces visitors to the shift in our understanding of nature. Major exhibits include the 400-year old Ratzenberger Herbarium – Europe's oldest systematic plant collection, Schildbach's Wood Library dating from the 18th century, and Goethe's elephant, one of the first large skeletons of a mammal ever to be preserved. The section on the history of the Earth shows visitors how the environment around Kassel has changed over millions of years.

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm.

Admission: Adults 1.50 €, Concessions 1 €.

The only one of its kind in Germany, covering an area of 1,400m², the museum was opened in 1992 and houses a wide range of sepulchral objects, both historical and modern: coffins, funeral carriages, mourning attire and jewelery, gravestones, sculptures and everyday objects associated with dying, death and commemoration. The exhibition also covers death and burial rites as well as the design of cemeteries, graves and monuments. In addition, the museum has a collection that currently consists of around 16,500 drawings and prints dating from the 15th century to the present day, as well a reference library with monographs, catalogs, special editions and a number of magazine articles on sepulchral culture.

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm, Wednesday open until 8pm.

Admission: Adults 5 €, Concessions 3.50 € Children under 6 years free.

The Museum of Astronomy and Technical History and the Planetarium have been housed in the Orangery since 1992. On display is a broad range of fascinating scientific and technological objects from the Renaissance period to the modern day. The entrance hall introduces the museum's main themes of basic physical concepts: space, time, matter, energy and information. Highlights of the collection include astronomical instruments invented by Ebert Baldewein and Jost Bürgi, as well as rare and exquisite telescopes and clocks for measuring time and space from the fields of physics, microscopy and optics. Celestial globes, armillary spheres and astrolabes from the 16th century, reconstructions, models and interactive experiments bring the enthralling exhibition to life. On the third floor of the central building, above the smaller photography and meteorology sections, lies the ten-meter dome with the Zeiss planetarium projector.

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 5pm.