Hotels in Kassel, Germany

A little about Kassel...

Kassel is a city situated along the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany, one of the two sources of the Weser river . It is the administrative seat of the Kassel administrative region (Regierungsbezirk) and of the district (Kreis) of the same name. The city has c. 198,500 inhabitants (2007) and covers an area of 106.77 square kilometres.

Main Sights:
What historic buildings have survived are mainly outside the center of town. Wilhelmshöhe Palace, above the city, was built in 1786 by landgrave Wilhelm IX of Hesse-Kassel. The palace now is a museum and houses a world-famous wall paper collection, an important collection of graeco-roman antiques and a fine gallery of paintings comprising the second largest collection of Rembrandts in Germany. It is surrounded by a beautiful park with many appealing sights. The Oktagon is a huge octagonal stone structure carrying a giant replica of Hercules "Farnese" (now at Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, Italy). From its base down to Wilhelmshöhe Palace runs a long set of artificial cascades which delight visitors during the summer months. The Löwenburg ("Lions Castle") is a replica of a medieval castle, also built during the reign of Wilhelm IX. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 Napoléon III was imprisoned in Wilhelmshöhe. In 1918 Wilhelmshöhe became seat of the German Army Command (OHL): it was there that the military commanders Hindenburg and Ludendorff prepared the German capitulation.

Another large park is the Karlsaue along the Fulda River. Established in the 16th century, it is famous for the Orangerie, a palace built in 1710 as a summer residence for the landgraves. Today there is also a planetarium in the park.

The city operates a tramway system; a Stadtbahn-like system with light rail vehicles running on both main line rail and tram tracks, called RegioTram, is currently being deployed. The city also operates buses, and was responsible for the development of the Kassel kerb which improves the alignment of modern low-floor buses with bus stops.