Welfenmausoleum
The Welfenmausoleum stands in Hanover’s Berggarten, within the Herrenhausen Gardens, as a burial place for the Welfen dynasty. Its sandstone exterior and Doric form give the building a calm, temple-like presence among the botanical garden’s planting.
King Ernst August commissioned the structure after Queen Friederike’s death in 1841. Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves designed it, and construction continued from 1842 to 1847. His earlier plans included an Egyptian-style temple, but the completed building drew inspiration from Berlin’s Charlottenburg Mausoleum. Inside, a wooden barrel vault and dome replaced the brick construction originally intended.
Queen Friederike and King Ernst August rest in sarcophagi created by Christian Daniel Rauch and his students. Princes and princesses from the Welfen family were buried there later, while a U-shaped oak grove frames the site. Some of those trees are more than 200 years old and arrived on specially built wagons pulled by 16 horses. The interior is not regularly open to visitors, though special events sometimes provide access.
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Image: Bernd Schwabe in HannoverCC BY-SA 3.0 
Image: Johann Friedrich Lange / Emil HöferPublic domain 
Image: Urheber des Ernst August Albums: Wilhelm August Degèle, Carl Fink, Carl Oesterley, Wilhelm Kretschmer, Justus Heinrich Jakob Molthan, Klindworth's Hof-Druckerei ...Public domain 
Image: Christian A. Schröder (ChristianSchd)CC BY-SA 4.0 
Image: anonymousPublic domain
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