Medieval Bückeburg

Bückeburg is a town of about 20,000 people in the Schaumburg district of Lower Saxony, halfway between Minden and Hanover. Its history is the history of its palace. A moated castle here is first documented in 1304, built by Count Adolf VI of Schaumburg to assert his authority against the bishops of Minden. Between 1560 and 1564 Count Otto IV had it converted into a four-winged palace in the Weser Renaissance style, and Ernst of Holstein-Schaumburg, who made Bückeburg his residence in 1607, added the palace chapel with its early Baroque woodwork and commissioned courtyard sculpture from Adriaen de Vries.

The palace is still the home of the princely family of Schaumburg-Lippe and is open for guided tours; the Fürstliche Hofreitschule in the former stables has since 2004 demonstrated European riding traditions from the 11th to the 17th centuries. The grounds cover more than 80 hectares, including the Schlosspark and the mausoleum of the princely house, and the town centre keeps an early Baroque town church of 1611–1615 built for Ernst. Bückeburg also has Germany’s helicopter museum.

The Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum sets up on the palace grounds by the Schlossplatz on two consecutive weekends at the turn of July and August, the largest of its touring stops. Bückeburg has a railway station on the Hanover–Minden line, about 15 minutes from Minden and an hour from Hanover.