TRAVEL
R
ising up on the south-western slope of the
“Marienberg” Hill, some 20 km to the south of
Hanover and 15 km to the north-west of Hildesheim
and visible from a great distance away, stands
Marienburg Castle. This summer residence of the
House of Guelph, the oldest princely house in
Europe, has been maintained in authentic condition and is one of the most important neo-Gothic
buildings in Germany. The romantic castle enchants visitors with the diversity of its façades, the
multifarious shapes of its towers and roofs and its
elaborately designed interior, with 140 halls and
rooms. The castle was built between 1858 and
1867 by King George V, the last monarch of the
Kingdom of Hanover, for his wife Queen Marie.
did not come to a total standstill, but continued in
some parts of the interior until 1869, it was never
brought to a complete conclusion. Queen Marie
lived in the Castle with her daughters for only a
year. It was the wish of King George V, who went
into exile in Austria after the end of the war, that
Queen Marie and her daughters Frederica and Mary
should remain in Hanover as a sign of resistance.
History
In 1857, King George V (1819–1878) gave the hill
known until then as Schulenburger Berg (“Schulenburg Hill”), but which from then on was called
“Marienberg”, together with the castle that was still
to be built on it, to Queen Marie (1818–1907) as
a present on her 39th birthday. The very unusual
aspect of this magnificent gift was the fact that
Queen Marie was able to plan the building, which
was intended as a summer residence, in accordance
with her own ideas and taste. The site chosen by
the King is not only idyllically situated on one of the
last of the hills that surround the valley of the River
Leine, but is also significantly close to the ancient
ancestral fortress of the House of Guelph, the Fortress of Calenberg, and to the royal capital, Hanover.
In 1857 King George V commissioned the master
builder Conrad Wilhelm Hase (1818–1902) to build
Marienburg Castle. In 1864, at the wish of Queen
Marie, the architect Edwin Oppler (1831–1880), a
pupil of Hase’s, took over the direction of the work.
In 1866 war broke out between the kingdoms of
Hanover and Prussia. The Hanoverian army suffered
severe losses, and King George V was forced to
capitulate. Although building work at the Cas ѱ