Germany - Oranienburg

In 1646 Princess Louise Henriëtte van Oranje-Nassau married with Friedrich Wilhelm I, Elector of Brandenburg. A few weeks after her move from Kleve to Berlin (1650) she visited a hunting lodge in Bötzow. She was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful surroundings and her husband decided to donate the lodge and the town to her.

Princess Louise Henriëtte ordered the construction of a new palace at the site of the old hunting lodge, which was done by Dutch craftsmen. They were also helpful in the reconstruction of Bötzow, which was severely damaged during the Thirty Years' War. In 1652/1653 the new palace and the rebuilt city were both named Oranienburg.

From 1689 on Louise’s son Elector Friedrich III ordered considerable extensions to the palace and gardens. With the addition of wings on the front and back of the main building Oranienburg Palace became an H-shaped plan. After the death of the Elector in 1713 the castle was no longer permanently inhabited.
In 1794 it became the property of the later Prussian Queen Louise, who spent two years in a row her summer holidays in Oranienburg.

The palace was sold in 1802 and served as a factory, seminary and - from 1933 to 1937 - as SS barracks. Between 1952 and 1990 it was used for housing the border troops of the GDR.

After a major restoration Oranienburg Palace - Brandenburg’s oldest baroque palace - was reopened in 1999 and nowadays houses the town hall of Oranienburg and two museums.