Description
Oldenburg or simply Oldenburg is an independent city in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. During the French annexation in the wake of the Napoleonic war against Britain, it was also known as Le Vieux-Bourg in French. The city is situated at the Rivers Hunte and Haaren, in the northwestern region between the cities of Bremen in the east and Groningen in the west. It has a population of 160,907 .The city is the place of origin of the House of Oldenburg. Before the end of the German Empire, it was the administrative centre and residence of the monarchs of Oldenburg.HistoryArchaeological finds point to a settlement dating back to the 8th century. The place was first mentioned in 1108 as Aldenburg in connection with Elimar I (also known as Egilmar I) who is now commonly seen as the first count of Oldenburg. The town gained importance due to its location at a ford of the navigable Hunte river. Oldenburg became the capital of the County of Oldenburg (later Duchy, Grand Duchy, and Free State), a small state in the shadow of the much more powerful Hanseatic city of Bremen.In the 17th century, Oldenburg was a wealthy town in a time of war and turmoil and its population and power grew considerably. In 1667, the town was struck by a disastrous plague epidemic and, shortly after, a fire destroyed Oldenburg. The Danish kings, who were also counts of Oldenburg at the time, were not much interested in the condition of the town and it lost most of its former importance. In 1773, Danish rule ended. It was only then that the destroyed buildings in the city were rebuilt in a neoclassicist style. (In German, the ‘neoclassicist style’ of that period would usually be called klassizistisch, while neoklassizistisch specifically refers to the classicist style of the early 20th century.)
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