Freudenthal Castle

The castle, completed in 1565, was a four-wing complex with an almost square inner courtyard. With side lengths of 85 × 95 m, the castle had enormous dimensions. The castle wings featured long rows of windows. Each of the four building corners had a projecting castle tower. The entire structure was built two stories high on a basement floor and was founded on a several-meter-deep stone foundation in the marshy ground. The stone material used was hewn sandstone ashlar from the Bückeberge near Obernkirchen. This sandstone was the most expensive building material at the time. Previously, the interiors were artfully painted by Dutch artists. The extensive building plans for the magnificent castle were only partially implemented.

After the fire of 1612, the castle was not rebuilt. The walls of the basement floor are still present today in the castle park located southwest of the city center. The princely administrative building took the place of the castle, which from 1855 was the district office of the former district of Uslar. A Merian engraving of Uslar from 1654, about 40 years after the fire, shows the castle ruins with their moat.

The name of the castle is based on the Freudenthal valley, in which Uslar is located. Construction took place between 1559 and 1565. The builder was Duke Erich II of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He served Emperor Charles V, who was King of Spain and the Netherlands. Since Erich spent a long time as a mercenary leader in the Netherlands, he hired builders from there for the castle construction. For a better view from the castle and to create a larger castle forecourt, residents of Uslar were relocated in 1561. This new settlement created the "Neustadt" (New Town) in front of the East Gate, which explains the name of today's Neustädter Platz.

In 1575, during a campaign from the military camp near Nancy, Erich II issued a decree that Uslar should be renamed after the castle in Freudenthal. However, the city did not comply. The Duke carried out a similar renaming in 1574 with Neustadt am Rübenberge, which he named Landestrost after his castle built there. Otherwise, the citizens of Uslar were not very enthusiastic about the ducal castle construction. For the large project, they had to provide unpaid manual and team services to their sovereign. The castle never served as a princely residence for its builder. Erich II used it as a pleasure and hunting lodge. During his rare stays in Uslar, it was the starting point for hunting expeditions in the Solling. For the most part, however, he stayed on his Dutch estates or participated in military campaigns abroad as a mercenary leader on foreign assignments.

Together with Erich II's Welf castles in Hann. Münden and Landestrost Castle in Neustadt am Rübenberge, Freudenthal Castle is one of the significant buildings that the Duke had built during his reign. He financed his construction projects partly through his quite successful military campaigns, during which he captured large sums of money or was compensated with land ownership abroad. It was customary for mercenary leaders to invest war profits in this way in construction projects.

Today

Archaeological investigations were carried out at the castle ruins in 1979 and 1980. Afterwards, the remains were transformed into a park and garden complex ("Schlosspark"). Since about 2010, the historic complex has been used by private initiative for cultural events. For example, the "Kunstmarkt Uslar" (Uslar Art Market) has been taking place there since 2012.