The palace has several wings, 145 rooms, and is architecturally integrated with a group of ancillary buildings constructed both before and after it was built.
By 1236 the Counts of Nassau were already in residence, when there is a record of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II celebrating Pentecost in the castle church.
In the 1700s, Schloss Biebrich (the "Versailles on the Rhine" on the outskirts of Wiesbaden) became a principal residence of the line of Nassau-Idstein and the City Palace fell into disuse.
[5] Little is known about the extent of the old original Castle, but remains of a tower dating back as early as the Frankish period (481–800 CE) were discovered in 1952 during reconstruction of adjacent buildings damaged in the Second World War.
However, the Duke felt it important to live amidst his subjects, so a central location on the Market Square was decided upon.
On 4 March 1848 it spread to the Duchy, when a third of the male population of some 30,000 angry citizens gathered in front of the City Palace to demand confirmation of the Nine Claims of Nassau, an early Bill of Rights.
With the crowd threatening to storm the Palace, Adolph rushed back to Wiesbaden from Berlin, where he had been consulting on the crisis.
He rescued his monarchy at the last minute by walking, unguarded and in uniform, through the crowds from the railroad station to the City Palace.
In April 1848, the Duke appointed the liberal politician August Hergenhahn as his Prime Minister and several advanced laws were enacted.
While Adolph did not fulfill all his promises, and some were not adopted until 1861, by enacting important reforms he enjoyed a longer reign and the respect of the population.
The Kingdom of Prussia annexed the Duchy as a war prize, sent the Duke into exile and took possession of the Wiesbaden City Palace.
[3] It was then used as a residence by Emperor Wilhelm I and the adjacent Kaiser-Wilhelm Sanatorium, built in 1871 as a military hospital, was named in his honor.
[9] Near the Palace numerous new important buildings were constructed, including a New Town Hall (1897), the Hessian State Theater (1894), the Kurhaus (1907) and the Central Railway Station (1906).
After the withdrawal of occupying forces in 1930, the building came into the possession of the Prussian State Administration of Palaces (German: Preußischen Staatlichen Schlösserverwaltung) and was converted into a museum.
[2] In 1975 the editorial staff of Hessian Radio (German: Hessischer Rundfunk) moved into the complex to better cover State politics and also opened a TV studio there.
Their proposal for a low-profile building inside the courtyard behind the Palace's facade was designed to preserve the historic character of the Schloßplatz.
[12] Today the Hessian Landtag occupies the original Ducal Palace and several adjacent buildings aligned to the Schloßplatz.
The main neo-classical palace building consists of an outwardly simple but elegant three-story structure with two wings arranged in a blunt angle.
Here the architect Georg Moller, a disciple of Friedrich Weinbrenner, and master builder Richard Goerz placed the main entrance.
[6][13] The main entrance of the corner tower connects to the so-called Small Rotunda, with a mosaic parquet floor of eight different woods, mother-of-pearl and brass.
The Right and Left wings accommodated the luxurious main rooms of the ducal apartments, decorated in exotic woods on doors, floors and furniture.
During World War II the interiors of the right wing, consisting of the wardrobe and bath of the Duchess, were completely destroyed.
These walls are decorated with Roman dancers, for which the young architect Philipp Hoffmann dedicated half a year from drawings he had made on site in Pompeii.
[6] At the acquisition of the Palace by Prussia in 1866 the plants, together with the greenhouse collection at Schloss Biebrich, were sold to the city of Frankfurt and form the basis of its Palmengarten.
The Gentleman's House had already been built in 1826 by a roofer's master called Konrad Kalb as a residence and place of business, with a drugstore, hardware store and book printer's.
Lacking natural light, the room quickly became inadequate for the growing number of MPs and in particular the approximately 50,000 annual visitors.
It has a transparent viewing area open to the public, a visitor center and an exhibition space covering the history of the Landtag.
The historic rooms of the ducal palace itself are used for official receptions of President of the Parliament (German: Landtagspräsident), as well as for other celebrations.
[17] Today the Wilhelmbau houses the Wiesbaden studios of Hessischer Rundfunk and a well-known room used for national press conferences.