Schloss Oldenburg

The palace is based on a medieval lowland castle that was built around 1100 by the Counts of Oldenburg to control a long-distance trade route from Westphalia to East Frisia.

Numerous residential and farm buildings were gathered in a small area, which around 1600 housed a court with around 350 people.

[2] At the beginning of the 17th century, Anthony Günther, Count of Oldenburg (1583–1667) planned the conversion of the heavily nested buildings into a regular four-wing complex based on the model of Italian city palazzi.

However, the ambitious project came to a standstill at the latest at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War for cost reasons.

In 1744, the Danish government added a simple annexe for the state administration ("chancellery wing") to the core building of Count Anthony Günther.

From 1817, Peter I, Grand Duke of Oldenburg (1755–1829) had the interior of the palace modernized under the supervision of the neoclassical master builder Heinrich Carl Slevogt (1787–1832) and added a further wing for the court kitchen and library as well as two coach houses.

The core of this new building is the large palace hall in neo-Renaissance style with ceiling paintings by the Bremen painter Arthur Fitger (1840-1909).

He abdicated as reigning Grand Duke during the November Revolution of 1918 and moved to his country seat Rastede Palace.