Residence Ensemble Schwerin
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How it came to be
A fort of the Slavic Obotrites stood on the island in Lake Schwerin by 973, when it first appears in the records. In 1160 Henry the Lion's forces attacked, the Obotrites under Niklot burned the fort and withdrew, and the conquerors built a new one and founded the town of Schwerin that year. Niklot's descendants later became the Dukes of Mecklenburg.
When the court returned to Schwerin in 1837, Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II wanted the castle rebuilt from the ground up. Georg Adolph Demmler drew the design, using ideas from Gottfried Semper and Friedrich August Stüler, and the main parts of today's castle were built in 1845-1857. Stüler later added the cupola and an equestrian statue of Niklot.
Around the castle, buildings in Neo-Classical, Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance styles, parks, canals and the Pfaffenteich lake were laid out through the 19th century. A fire in December 1913 destroyed about a third of the castle, and the grand duke abdicated in the revolution of 1918. The state parliament has sat in the castle since 1990. The ensemble of 38 elements was inscribed in 2024.
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