Oldenburg Travel Guide
A detailed destination guide for your next Germany vacation
Oldenburg Overview
Oldenburg’s heart beats in the must-see old town. Grouped around the Old Town Hall, St. Lamberti Church and the castle, the town center is one big pedestrian zone. Architecture from five centuries harmonizes with today’s attractive shopping worlds. Street cafes, bistros and restaurants to suit all tastes. Picturesque spots and quarters, plenty of green and softly flowing waterways round.
Where to stay in Oldenburg?
Check out our selection of hand-selected and quality Oldenburg vacation rentals and holiday apartments.
Things to See in Oldenburg
Botanischer Garten Oldenburg, a botanical garden
University of Oldenburg — A relatively young university, founded in 1973. The university has enriched the Northwest region of Germany with economic and cultural impulses. Strengthening the region as a centre of science and research is also the declared objective of its close co-operation with the University of Bremen (Bremen vacation rentals | Bremen travel guide). Combining and developing scientific excellence with outstanding teaching is the agenda for the coming years. The foundation has been laid: internationally visible and interdisciplinary research, systematic promotion of young researchers and a complete restructuring to Bachelor and Master degrees.
Schloss Oldenburg — a castle in the German city of Oldenburg in the state of Lower Saxony. It is the former residence of the counts (1667-1785), dukes (1785-1815) and grand dukes (1815-1918) of Oldenburg.
The Degode house built in 1502 — market is one of the finest privately owned houses in Oldenburg. The famous Oldenburg Count Anton Günther (1603-1667) gave it to his Privy Council of grace Mylius box wedding. Over time, this formerly free noble house
several times changed its owner and served different purposes..
Hof Apothecary dating from 1677
[ source: wikipedia ]
Maps and Driving Directions to Oldenburg
The city center of Oldenburg is surrounded by a ring of highways (Autobahnen) consisting of A28, A29 and A293. Oldenburg is part of the railway connections between Norddeich-Leer-Oldenburg-Bremen and Wilhelmshaven-Oldenburg-Osnabrück. InterCity railway connections to Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden and an InterCityExpress connection to Frankfurt and Munich Central Station exist. Oldenburg is connected to shipping through the Küstenkanal, a ship canal connecting the rivers Ems and Weser. With 1.6 Million tons of goods annually it is the most important non-coastal harbour in Lower Saxony. Bicycles play a very important part in personal transport. Because of its close proximity to the city of Bremen, the city is only about half an hour drive from the Bremen Airport.
Travel Insider Tips for Oldenburg
Oldenburg in Oldenburg ! Einkaufen, Schloss, Schlossgarten, Museum...just a beautiful and peaceful little town in North West of Germany
Shared by Thomas Haselhorst, Jul 2010
Idafehn in Kreis Oldenburg, where I did much of my growing up. We had a canal in front of the house. We had dirt roads and a main street of cobble stones. We wore wooden shoes in winter and went barefoot in summer. I had a wonderful childhood in spite of the war. Now the canal is filled in and all the roads are paved....just the relatives remain the same -- thank goodness :))
Shared by Doris Fugel Janssen Bonforti, Jul 2010
Lambertikirche
[ source: Flickr]
Popular Points of Interest in and near Oldenburg
State Museum for Nature and Humankind
[ source: Museum website ]
The exhibitions at Oldenburg's oldest museum illustrate the interdependence between man and nature. The origins of the museum date back to the year 1835, when Grand Duke Paul Friedrich August acquired a collection of insects and birds. Ethnological objects and archaeological finds were added subsequently. The focus here is on the natural and cultural history of northwest Germany. The permanent exhibition presents the local moorland and sandy heathland, coastline and marshland, and the River Hunte, which links them all together. The characteristics of the region are highlighted, along with the diversity of the countryside as a habitat for flora and fauna and the chronological order of the historical objects.
Hours: Tuesday - Friday 9am - 5pm. Saturday & Sunday 10am - 5pm.
Admission: Adults 4 €, Concessions 2 €.
State Museum of Art and Cultural History (including Oldenburg Palace, the Augusteum, and the Prince's Palace)
The State Museum of Art and Cultural History is accommodated in three buildings; the Oldenburg Palace, the Augusteum and the Prince's Palace.
Oldenburg Palace, the former residence of Count Anton Günther (1583–1667) and the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg until 1918-19, is now home to a museum for art and cultural history. The permanent exhibition The Cultural History of an Historical Landscape
shows the variety and cultural heritage of the former Grand Duchy Oldenburger Land over the years from the Middle Ages through to the 20th century.
The Augusteum, which was built in 1856 in the Italian Renaissance style and elaborately decorated in an historicist spirit, was the first art museum in Oldenburg. Today the building, which was built specifically to this purpose, once more houses part of the former collection of paintings of the Grand Duke, mainly Italian and Dutch paintings from the 16th to the 18th century, and European art from the Middle Ages through to today. The ground floor showcases outstanding temporary exhibitions on the history of art and contemporary art.
After its renovation and the restoration of its original layout, the former Prince's Palace on the Damm now serves as gallery for art of the 19th and 20th century. The development of the fine arts in Germany is shown on two floors, starting with romanticism and classicist art.
Hours: Tues, Wed, Fri 9 am - 5pm, Thurs 9am - 8pm, Saturday & Sunday Sun 10am - 5pm.
Related Sites
We collected some useful links related to Oldenburg. If you know a few more sites not listed here, or also know some insider tips or point of interests for this destination? Please share and submit your Germany travel tip. If approved it will be shown on this page!
- Homepage of Oldenburg: Oldenburg (official home page)
- Wikipedia: Oldenburg
More about the History of Oldenburg
The town was first mentioned in 1108, at that time known under the name of Aldenburg. It became important due to its location at a ford of the navigable Hunte River. Oldenburg became the capital of the County of Oldenburg (later a Duchy, Grand Duchy and Republic), a small state in the shadow of the much more powerful Hanseatic city of Bremen (Bremen vacation rentals | Bremen travel guide). In the 17th century, Oldenburg was a wealthy town in a time of war and turmoil and its population and power grew considerably. In 1667, the town was struck by a disastrous plague epidemic and, shortly after, a fire destroyed Oldenburg. The Danish kings, who were also counts of Oldenburg at the time, were not much interested in the condition of the town and it lost most of its former importance. In 1773, Danish rule ended. It was only then that the destroyed buildings in the city were rebuilt in a Classicist style. In 1893, a canal connecting the Hunte and the Ems rivers was finished connecting the port of Oldenburg with the North Sea which greatly increased the city's economic importance. In 1945, after World War II, Oldenburg grew to more than 100,000 inhabitants when refugees migrated into the city that was only sparingly bombed during World War II. In 1946, Oldenburg became part of the new German Land of Lower Saxony.
[ source: wikipedia ]
What makes this Live Like a German Oldenburg Travel Guide special...
This Oldenburg travel guide provides you with an overview of Oldenburg, Oldenburg pictures, and a local travel guide that suggests many special trips, unique activities, and vacation ideas, that you can't find in a typical Germany travel guide.
Some of this information is compiled from popular and well-known sources (e.g., such as Wikipedia, Wikitravel, and great pictures from Flickr). However, what makes this Germany travel guide special is that most of the travel suggestions and insider tips are provided by local residents, property owners, and our readers, who share and submit their travel tips with us. All submissions are then editorially reviewed to ensure high quality. All this information is logically organized within this destination guide to make it easy for you to find things quickly.
In addition, the Oldenburg destination guide features restaurant recommendations, restaurant reviews, where to go for grocery shopping, sports activities, getting around, cultural events and highlights, entertainment, and health related information - so you are informed for your travel to Germany, and you can learn about all the cool things you can do during your Germany vacation!
