ETR // Stage 32 // Celle - Goslar

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
Open this stage on the map

Distance

  • Celle - Goslar

  • Radius 100 km
  • 114 km

Highlights

  • Celle Castle
  • Altstadt Celle
  • Schützenplatz Celle
  • Brunswick Palace
  • Brunswick Cathedral
  • Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum
  • Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum
  • Dankwarderode Castle
  • Vieweghaus, Burgplats
  • Aegidien Monastery
  • Wolfenbüttel Old Town
  • Schloss Wolfenbüttel
  • Asseburg Castle
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Bury yourself in Brunswick history & heritage

Between Celle and Goslar, you will visit Braunschweig, where you can visit the neoclassical Brunswick Palace, with the huge Brunonia Quadriga chariot sculpture.

Dankwarderode Castle on Burgplatz square has a selection of art from the Middle Ages, and across the square you can find the Brunswick Lion monument, and Romanesque-style Brunswick Cathedral.

Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum

The Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum showcases local history, and was founded in 1890 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory over Napoleon, after Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Oels lost his life in the final battles against the power-hungry Corsican. Known to both friends and enemies as "The Black Duke", Friedrich Wilhelm was revered as a hero of freedom due to his death on the battlefield in the Duchy of Brunswick.

This region holds a lot of history to get your teeth into, so slow down and appreciate your surroundings, you never know what you might discover here.

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Culture, history, heritage, folklore and artefacts

In 1890, the citizens of Braunschweig collected more than 1000 articles of memorabilia for an exhibition that was shown in the Aegidienkirche on the 75th anniversary of his death. In light of the great interest the showing received, they decided to keep the objects together as a collection. This became the "Fatherland Museum" one year later, in 1891. After various changes of location from the Paulinerchor, Bohlweg and the former Aegidienkloster, the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum was moved to Vieweghaus on Burgplats in 1985.

In the meantime, the regional history and heritage of Braunschweig has also been recorded and displayed at three other locations: archeology in the old ducal chancellery in Wolfenbüttel, folklore in a farmhouse in Bortfeld, and Jewish history in the former Aegidien monastery. If you have time, visit the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, also.

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

The Fortress Town of Wolfenbüttel

Taking a walk around Wolfenbüttel, you can quickly come in contact with the history and stories that even today, can seem brutal. Some conversations with the locals over a beer, and you will hear some dark tales. A first settlement was founded here during the tenth century, and Wolfenbüttel was first mentioned in texts from 1118 as Wulferisbuttle, when the Saxon count Widekind of Wolfenbüttel had a water castle erected on the important trade route from Brunswick to Halberstadt and Leipzig.

Wolfenbüttel was destroyed by Henry the Lion in 1191, and yet again by his great-grandson Duke Albert I of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1255. The fortress and town, as well as nearby Asseburg Castle, were seized in 1258 by Albert I from the House of Asseburg, the descendants of Widekind. The castle was rebuilt by the Welf Duke Henry I of Brunswick from 1283 onwards. Quite a turbulent history, as much of Europe has also seen.

The Thirty Years' War

The dark tales continue.. In 1626, during the Thirty Years' War, Danish troops under the command of King Christian IV occupied the fortified town of Wolfenbüttel. They were besieged by the Imperial forces of General Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim in the Battle of Lutter. Re-conquered in 1627, the Wolfenbüttel fortress remained under the command of Gottfried Huyn von Geleen. In June 1641 the Battle of Wolfenbüttel was fought here, when the Swedish forces under Wrangel and the Count of Königsmark defeated the Austrians under Archduke Leopold of Habsburg, however, they failed to occupy the town. But it doesn't stop there...

During World War II, the city prison became a major execution site of prisoners of the Gestapo. Most of those executed were members of various Resistance groups, and one such victim was Dom Lambert, a monk from Ligugé Abbey in France, who was beheaded there on 3 December 1943. These days, it's a lot safer, nicer and more interesting to float around this old medieval town with the dark past lurking right under the surface.

The Baroque Castle of Schloss Wolfenbüttel

In 1866, the castle became the Anna-Vorwerk-School for girls, and today part of the building is used as a high school. It also contains a great example of Baroque state apartments, which are open to the public as a museum. The churches Marienkirche (Hauptkiche Beatae Mariae Virginis) was built during the seventeenth century, and St. Trinitatiskirche (Trinity Church) was built during the early eighteenth century.

Wolfenbüttel is located on the German Timber-Frame Road, and although it is smaller than the neighbouring cities of Braunschweig, Salzgitter, and Wolfsburg, its downtown area is rich in half-timber buildings, many dating several centuries back, and it still retains its historical character, due to the fact that it was largely undamaged during WWII.

Kaiserpfalz Goslar - The Imperial Palace of Goslar

Continue your exploration of the Harz Region and you'll eventually find the Imperial Palace of Goslar. Kaiserpfalz Goslar is a historical building complex at the foot of Rammelsberg hill, south of the town of Goslar. Painstakingly restored in the late 19th century, The Kaiserhaus was a favourite imperial residence, especially for the Salian emperors, and the 11th-century Imperial Palace has a spectacular display of historic murals.

Since 1992, the palace site is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the Goslar's Old Town and Rammelsberg Mountain with its silver and copper mines that are more than 1000 years old, as well as Rammelsberg Mining Museum which contains the old mine railway and underground waterwheels. The Rammelberg mines were finally closed in 1988, after over a millennium of mining history. Rammelsberg Museum is an anchor point on the ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage, and it's definitely worth some of your time!

© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Photos

  • Dave O'Byrne

  • European Touring Route AS

Partners

Highlights

  • The European Route of Industrial Heritage
  • Rammelsberg Mining Museum
  • Kaiserpfalz Goslar
  • Goslar Hanseatic Days
  • Goslar International Concerto Days
  • Old Town Festival
  • Zwinger Tower and Dungeon
  • Goslar Museum
  • Museum for Late Mediaeval History
  • Mönchehaus Museum for Contemporary and Modern Arts
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Goslar - Imperial and Industrial Heritage wrapped in dark tales of witches and warlocks

Nesting deep within Germany’s Harz Mountain range in Lower Saxony, Goslar is a beautiful medieval old town peppered with tales of witches and half-timbered houses. Depending on when you get there, you can be lucky and catch one of the festivals such as Hanseatic Days around Easter, or Goslar International Concerto Days from the middle to end of August, or the Old Town Festival around mid-September.

With too many beautiful features to mention, Goslar is a medieval feast for the senses, combining beautiful architecture, old building techniques, a central-European atmosphere interwoven with a dark and interesting past, stories, tales, facts and some fiction, from early Iron ore mining in the Harz region in Roman times, through The Dark Ages, The Industrial Revolution, various wars and torment, right up to present-day Goslar.

Geographically, Goslar sits on the borders of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, and forms the boundary between the Hildesheim Börde which is part of the Northern German Plain, and the Harz range, which is the highest and northernmost extension of Germany's Central Uplands.

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Occupation, reoccupation, revolution and resolution

In 1802, Goslar was annexed by Prussian forces during the Napoleonic Wars, and under Prussian rule, further reforms were pushed ahead by councillor Christian Wilhelm von Dohm. Temporarily part of the Kingdom of Westphalia upon the Prussian defeat at the 1806 Battle of Jena–Auerstedt, Goslar finally was assigned to the newly established Kingdom of Hanover by resolution of the Vienna Congress. The cathedral was sold and torn down between 1820 and 1822. After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and again under Prussian rule Goslar became a popular retirement residence (Pensionopolis) and a garrison town for the Prussian Army. The Hohenzollern kings and emperors had the Imperial Palace restored, including the mural paintings by Hermann Wislicenus.

Gosplar played a central role in WWII

After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Reich Minister Richard Walther Darré made Goslar the seat of the agricultural Reichsnährstand corporation. In 1936, the city obtained the title of Reichsbauernstadt, and in the course of the German re-armament, a Luftwaffe airbase was built north of the town and several war supplier companies were located in the vicinity, including subcamps of the Buchenwald and Neuengamme concentration camps. Strangely enough, the historic town escaped strategic bombing during World War II.

As part of the British occupation zone from 1945, Goslar was the site of a displaced persons camp. During the Cold War era, the city served as a major garrison town for the West German army and the border police, due to its proximity to the inner German border. And after the fall of the Berlin wall, the barracks were vacated and a major economic contributor to the local exchequer was lost.

The European Route of Industrial Heritage

Goslar sits on The European Route of Industrial Heritage and the region is not lacking in interesting places to visit, so you should plan a day or three to soak it all up. Some of the places you could include on your walking tour are Monks' House, Mönchehaus Museum for Contemporary and Modern Arts, the Goslar Museum, the Museum in the Gothic Town Hall, Zwinger Tower and Dungeon, as well as the Museum for Late Mediaeval History. If this isn't enough, you can certainly find more locations to dig even deeper, before recovering with a German beer and some great food on the main square.

ETR 60 Stages

Back to Top

© ETR.world. ETR.travel. All rights reserved.
EU Copyright | GDPR | SDG's | Cookies | Terms | Credits

  • Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
  • Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations
  •  Honda Motor Europe
  • KTM Motorcycles
  • Touratech
  • Wileyx EMEA
  • Motorbike Europe
  • Roadtrooper.com
  • Moto Clube do Porto
  • Davo Development
  • Heimplanet
  • Enduristan
  • FeiyuTech
  • SENA
  • Collaprime
  • Æventyr
  • Pæskatun
  • Polarnatt Media
  • RR Alta
  • UiT Campus Alta
  • Innovation Performance
  • United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
  • Innovation Norway