Orangerie Wernigerode, Cultural heritage monument in Lustgarten, Wernigerode, Germany.
The Orangerie Wernigerode is a stone building made from local Rogenstein material with large windows that once protected orange trees and subtropical plants during winter. The structure features multiple stories and displays regular rows of windows designed to provide adequate light for plant growth.
Count Christian Ernst zu Stolberg-Wernigerode had the building erected from 1728 out of locally quarried Rogenstein to overwinter orange trees and subtropical plants in his French-style pleasure garden. It was inaugurated in 1731 with a sermon by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf of Herrnhut. At the end of the 18th century the plants were sold and the building became a concert hall and summer residence; in 1826 the count's library moved in, reopening on 23 May 1827. From 1963 to 1967 it was converted into a site of the State Archives of Saxony-Anhalt.
The building's name comes from its first use: housing the orange trees Count Christian Ernst had brought to Wernigerode from 1713. From 1826 it held the counts' library, reopened on 23 May 1827, with over 100,000 volumes and a noted Bible collection; parts of that collection were sold from 1929.
Access to the site is through the surrounding Lustgarten, where the building is easily reachable on foot among other historic structures. Visitors should note that the building now serves administrative functions and may not always be fully open for tours.
The library held over 100,000 volumes and a valuable Bible collection, parts of which were sold off from 1929. After the war the Soviet occupation authority seized the remaining holdings as trophy art and took them to the USSR; what was left after the land reform went to the university and state library in Halle.
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