Three towers, many stories!
Wewelsburg Castle was rebuilt between 1603 and 1609 in its unique triangular shape in the Weser Renaissance style by Prince-Bishop Dietrich von Fürstenberg, incorporating older buildings. It is situated high above the Almetal valley on a mountain spur.
Today, Wewelsburg Castle is home to a youth hostel and the district museum with its two museum sections: the Historical Museum of the Paderborn Diocese and the Wewelsburg 1933 - 1945 Memorial. Regular special exhibitions and events complement the popular group and educational museum offerings.
Historical Museum of the Abbey of Paderborn
The history of the Paderborn region is traced from the Stone Age to the end of the prince-bishopric of Paderborn in 1802 with rare exhibits and displays. The exhibition in the south-east wing of Wewelsburg Castle tells of the life of the clergy, the nobility and the population in the numerous towns through to the peasant classes and social outsiders.
Monuments worth seeing, such as the historic witches' cellar and an original piece of the old Hellweg from the 13th century, as well as unique sacred treasures from the Baroque and Rococo periods, provide a vivid picture of life in past centuries.
Wewelsburg 1933 - 1945 Memorial and Remembrance Site
Between 1933 and 1945, a central meeting place for the SS was to be built in Wewelsburg Castle on the orders of Heinrich Himmler. A concentration camp was built on site for the planned expansion. At least 1,285 prisoners died as a result of the living and working conditions and harassment by the SS guards.
The permanent exhibition "Ideology and Terror of the SS" in the former guard building embeds the history of local SS activities and the local concentration camp in a national overall presentation of the SS. The Schutzstaffel (SS), its ideology and its unprecedented crimes are comprehensively addressed.
The permanent exhibition presents objects from the living environment of the perpetrators and material evidence from the concentration camp in a museum-like, multimedia and multi-perspective way. In the north tower of Wewelsburg Castle, two rooms preserved in Nazi architecture bear witness to the inhuman megalomania of the SS.
With the exception of the dungeon and the cellar room in the south-east wing and the crypt in the north tower, the museum departments are accessible with the help of museum staff.
Special exhibition from 17.06.-19.09.2023:
"1123: Wewelsburg Castle in the Middle Ages"
Visitors are taken back to the medieval history of today's castle. Its predecessor buildings are discussed, as are the noble families who lived together in Wewelsburg Castle in the late Middle Ages. Their bailiwick rights to the nearby Böddeken Abbey tied it to the castle from the High Middle Ages onwards. This connection between Wewelsburg Castle, its noble inhabitants and Böddeken Abbey only ended in 1589 when the Bishop of Paderborn, Dietrich IV von Fürstenberg, redeemed the pledged castle and soon afterwards ordered its conversion into a castle.
The exhibition is located in the castle hall. Admission is free.
Information on accessibility
