Schloss Wolfenbüttel

It now houses a gymnasium secondary school, the Federal Academy of Arts Education, and a museum with its historic rooms on display.

Its immediate vicinity is home to several historically significant buildings including the Herzog August Bibliothek, the Lessinghaus, the Zeughaus, and the Kleines Schloss.

In the Oker marshes there was already a small settlement known as Wulferisbuttle, sited on a trade route between the Rhine and Elbe and the bishoprics of Halberstadt and Hildesheim, used by both merchants and pilgrim monks.

In 1191, the castle was destroyed by duke Henry the Lion, the head of the House of Welf and brother-in-law of King Richard Lionheart.

It was captured and destroyed in 1542 by the Schmalkaldic League and rebuilding only began in 1553 under Duke Henry the Younger, who created a new residence and converted the old tower into a castle chapel.

In 1595 the Protestant composer Michael Praetorius became private secretary to Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, living in the castle.

When Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was appointed librarian at the nearby Herzog August Library in 1770, the Duke assigned him some rooms on the first floor of the castle.

That festival also includes concerts by the Posaunenchor Wolfenbüttel brass band in the Hausmannsturm, featuring music by Praetorius and other composers.