Königsplatz
Königsplatz is a round square where six streets meet, right in Kassel's pedestrian zone. It divides the Obere from the Untere Königsstraße, and the tram runs straight across the middle along both. Stand near the centre for a moment and look down each street in turn: the radial layout is the clearest trace of the planned city that was laid out here in the 18th century.
The square dates from 1767, when Kassel was redesigned to plans by Simon Louis du Ry, an architect you will meet again in a few minutes. It was named after Landgrave Friedrich I, who was at the same time King of Sweden. Important public buildings stood around it, among them the seat of the state government and the regional postal headquarters.
Its most turbulent chapter came when Kassel belonged to the Kingdom of Westphalia and the square was renamed Napoléonsplatz. In 1810 King Jérôme decreed a statue of his brother. The first plan called for bronze from local mines, worked by the Kassel sculptor Johann Werner Henschel on the painter Jacques-Louis David's recommendation, but it was dropped. Instead, on 12 November 1812, a Carrara marble statue by Antoine-Denis Chaudet was unveiled: Napoleon as an idealised Roman emperor in toga and laurel wreath, a scroll in his right hand standing for the constitution. It lasted barely a year. After the French left in 1813 it was smashed, and its mutilated remains are now in the Museum Schloss Friedrichstein in Bad Wildungen.
Art divided the city here once more after 1992. For documenta 9, the Hamburg landscape architect Gustav Lange, pushed by the festival's artistic director Jan Hoet, built a wooden platform in the middle of the square. It stayed after the exhibition, meant to spark a redesign, and for years Kassel argued about it: many residents saw it as a blight and demanded its removal, while the architect fought to keep it.
From here it is 380 m, about 5 minutes on foot, to the Museum Fridericianum, du Ry's other great contribution to the city.
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