Bevern Castle

Statius von Münchhausen had the castle built between 1603 and 1612 on the site of an older manor. He had secured the feudal expectancy as early as 1584, as the Bevern family line was in danger of dying out in the male line. After the death of the last male heir in 1588, Statius took over the fief in 1590. The castle's master builder was Johann Hundertossen from Hameln. Statius encountered financial difficulties in 1618 but managed to retain the castle through forced administration. After his death in 1633, it passed to Duke August the Younger of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, who used it as a hunting lodge and administrative seat. During the Thirty Years' War, Dorothea von Bothmer, Statius' widow, prevented its occupation. From 1667, it became the residence of Ferdinand Albrecht I, the Duke's youngest son, who founded the Braunschweig-Bevern cadet line here. This line used the castle until the late 18th century.