Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum

One of Germany's oldest public art museums and one of the underrated collections of northern Europe. The Old Masters holdings are exceptional: Vermeer's Girl with a Wine Glass (one of only 35 authenticated Vermeers), Rembrandt's Family Portrait, Cranach, Holbein, Rubens, and a strong Italian section including Giorgione and Titian.

The applied arts and decorative arts collections — ivory carvings, porcelain, Baroque silver — are equally distinguished and often overlooked by visitors focused on the paintings. The museum building is itself handsome: a 19th-century Italianate palazzo set back from the road in a small park east of the old town. Allow at least two hours; the combination of great paintings in manageable quantity and well-laid-out rooms makes it one of the more satisfying museum experiences in Lower Saxony. Closed Mondays.

things to do museum
A story
Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel began collecting paintings, prints, and applied arts in the late 17th century with a seriousness that went beyond courtly fashion — he was genuinely interested in how art worked and wrote a novel (the longest in the German language at the time) partly as an exercise in narrative structure. In 1754, his successors opened the collection to the public, making it one of the first art museums in the world to be systematically accessible outside of court circles.

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