Fridericianum

The Fridericianum was designed by Huguenot architect Simon Louis du Ry for Landgrave Friedrich II and opened in 1779 as the world's first purpose-built public museum.

The Fridericianum also contained a library built to house 100,000 volumes, and was connected to the medieval Zwehrenturm tower, which had been made into an observatory.

[4] When, in the early 19th century, Napoleon's youngest brother Jérôme Bonaparte became King of Westphalia and Kassel was named the capital of the kingdom, the Fridericianum was repurposed as the first parliamentary building in Germany.

In 1998, René Block took over from Loers as Artistic Director of the Fridericianum, focusing on the supposed peripheries of the global art world.

Following Block, the Fridericianum was directed from 2008 to 2011 by Rein Wolfs, who organized the first exhibition of Danh Vo's "We the People", for which the artist recast a life-size Statue of Liberty from 30 tons of copper sheets.