Germany · 17th century
Wewelsburg (German pronunciation: [ˈveːvl̩sbʊɐ̯k]) is a Renaissance castle located in the village of Wewelsburg, which is a district of the town of Büren, Westphalia, in the Landkreis of Paderborn in the northeast of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The castle has a triangular layout, with three round towers connected by massive walls. After 1934 it was used by the Schutzstaffel (SS) under Heinrich Himmler and was to be expanded into a complex which would serve as the central SS cult-site.
After 1941 plans were developed to enlarge it to be the so-called "Centre of the World". In 1950 the castle reopened as a museum and youth hostel. (The youth hostel is one of the largest in Germany.) The castle today hosts the Historical Museum of the Prince Bishopric of Paderborn and the Wewelsburg 1933–1945 Memorial Museum.
Text adapted from “Wewelsburg” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wewelsburg ranks #220 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #22 of the 711 mapped in Germany. Founded 1603, it is older than 31% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 721 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 43,611 times in the last 60 days, more than 99% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
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