Castle Oberwiederstedt | Novalis Museum

Germany, Germany

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Castle Oberwiederstedt, located in Wiederstedt near Arnstein, Germany, originated from a 13th-century Dominican nunnery and was converted into a Renaissance-style castle in the 17th century by Hildebrand Christoph von Hardenberg.

It is the birthplace of the early Romantic poet Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg), born there in 1772, where he lived until age 14, and now houses Saxony-Anhalt's only Romantic literature museum dedicated to his life, works like "Hymns to the Night" and the "Blue Flower," and early Romanticism research.

The site includes a restored castle park, an underground copper slate mine tunnel, the former monastery church where Novalis was baptized, permanent and changing exhibitions, lectures, musical events, fairy tale festivals, and has been modernized for cultural preservation since the 1980s with support from the Novalis Foundation and International Novalis Society.