Wernigerode Castle
Take a virtual walk around Wernigerode Castle. The 360-degree panorama tour takes you from the large outside terrace to the porcelain chamber, King Wilhelm I's study and finally the tower.
Originally, Wernigerode Castle was a mediaeval fortress which was supposed to safeguard the German emperors of the Middle Ages on their way to their hunting jaunts to the Harz. The first castle building was erected during the first quarter of the 12th century, overlooking the town of Wernigerode. Throughout its history, the complex witnessed a number of drastic changes. Towards the end of the 15th century, strong late Gothic style development took place, of which two arched windows still remain to be seen today in the castle courtyard. During the 16th century, the fortress was converted to a Renaissance stronghold, this still being visible in the Renaissance stair tower.
When the building was severely ravaged during the 30-year war, Earl Ernst zu Stolberg-Wernigerode began converting the fortress relics into a romantic residential round castle in the late 17th century, in Baroque style. The extensive alterations that took place between 1862 and 1885 are owed to the cometlike political rise of Earl Otto zu Stolberg-Wernigerode during which he became the first senior president of the Prussian province of Hanover in around 1867, followed by German Ambassador in Vienna and finally Bismarck's deputy as Vice Chancellor of the German Reich and Prussian Deputy Prime Minister.
 www.schloss-wernigerode.de
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