Springtime in Hannover

[selenak]

I'm on the road again this week, which means sneaking out between work to admire the beauties of the various places I'm visiting, which in turns means pic spams for you, oh patient readers of these ramblings. Here's a teaser, because it's spring and I love to share:



If you assume this is someone's palace, you're wrong. In fact, it's the city hall of Hannover, aka the city with the fine tradition of exporting boorish and dim princes to Britain and Monaco so that their maintenance is no longer their problem. This has worked out beautifully in the past - well, for Hannover, less so for the Brits and currently for Monaco - and benefited the local gardening habits and architecture as well.



Hannover was bombed during WWII, as all larger cities were, so the old palace, for example, doesn't exist anymore, but they did a good job restoring the old centre of the town, wouldn't you say?







But the jewel is the city hall. Behold it from afar and the from various sides:













While the palace, as mentioned, has been done for, the magnificent baroque gardens which are a good example of our German princes' tendency to want their very own mini Versailles do still exist, the Herrenhäuser Gärten. They were founded by the princess Sophia, and in addition to a lot of beautiful plants in geometric formations also contain a lot of dead Hannoverians in a mausoleum, among them George I. of England. (Did they sent the corpse back or did he happen to be in Hannover when he died? The Georges aren't my historical forte. Other than the Prince Regent, the later George IV., because of various poets making fun of him.)Anyway, here is the Great Garden, or rather, various sections thereof, because you have to be in an airplane to get a photo of the entire very large area:


















The smaller section of the Herrenhäuser Gärten is called "Berggarten", or "Mountaingarden". This is where you find the botanist's delights:











And finally, here's the mausoleum. Given the surroundings, I think I understand why the first George preferred it to being buried at Windsor:

Comments

[yvi]

Oh Gosh, so pretty!

I might be moving to Hannover, or at least to Braunschweig or Wolfsburg later this year, so now I am really a bit thrilled about that :) I haven't been there yet.

[selenak]

Braunschweig is also quite pretty, and yes, there's a lot to enjoy in Hannover.

[marny_h96]

I don't know about Wolfsburg but Braunschweig has some pretty sights, too. And since I've lived in Hannover all my life I might be a tiny bit biased *g* but I think it's a good place to live. And pretty :D (although we have our share of "OMG what were they thinking?" type of buildings, too)

[anotherslashfan]

Well, it's nice to see that there are indeed nice places in Hannover. My best friend lives there, but I've never been won over by the city...

[selenak]

I never was in Hannover for longer than a day, so I couldn't say what living there is like, but I do like the bookstores, and the views depicted above. :)

[monanotlisa]

Lovely - your descriptions being even more so than the shots. ;)

[selenak]

:) I try.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

Pretty piccies!

And yes, George I happened to be in Hannover when he died, for the excellent reason that he disliked England and spent as little time there as was decently possible. So it's not so much that Hannover exported him to Britain as that they ended up in a time-share arrangement.

George didn't much care for the British food, or the climate, and he *definitely* didn't care for the English Parliamentarians. Hannover was a comparatively small place, but it had the virtue (from George's point of view) of being pretty much an absolute monarchy. The English Parliament, however, had fought one and a half civil wars on the subject of the Divine Right of Kings, and they had no intention of giving Georgie-Porgey any real power. Getting bossed around by a bunch of uppity and non-royal foreigners annoyed him.

[selenak]

Good for the English Parliament, and yes, that explains it. :)

[marny_h96]

Yay, someone who thinks that my hometown is pretty *g* (here via my Network page where I found a link to your journal)

[selenak]

I certainly feasted my eyes on your hometown's sights. :) *waves*

[marny_h96]

*waves back* Yes, there definitely are some gorgeous places here!

[zing_och]

Oh, pretty!

My favorite fact about the City Hall is that it's the New City Hall. Always confuses the hell out of visitors.

And regarding the old city centre: Last year at CEBIT time I was there and a couple asked me "We're looking for the Altstadt... is it just this one street?" And the answer is more or less "yes, it is." *g*

Now I want to take pics, too. *looks for camera*

[selenak]

Ah, but it's a pretty street. :)