Alexandria - Cairo, Aschrott Fountain, Bali Cinema, Banff, Bolero Kassel, Breitenau Memorial, Brothers Grimm Museum, Department Store C&A, Department Store Galeria Kaufhof, Department Store Sinnleffers, Dock 4 Studiobühne, documenta-Halle, Dschingis Khan Restaurant, ......
Fridericianum, Friedrichsplatz Parking Garage, Friedrichsstr. 28, Gloria Cinema, Grand City Hotel Hessenland, Handwerkskammer, Hauptbahnhof, Huguenothouse, Kabul - Bamiyan, Karlsaue Park, Kaskade Cinema, Neue Galerie, Obere Karlsstr. 4 (Ex-Bakery), Oberste Gasse 4 (Ex-Elisabeth Hospital), Off The Main Sites Venues, Orangerie, Ottoneum, Schlachthof, Spohrstr.7 (Ex-Finance Building), Staatstheater, Ständehaus, Untere Karlsstr. 14, Weinberg Bunker, Weinberg Terraces, Youth Library Kaart van Kassel
The Fridericianum
The Fridericianum is traditionally the main venue of documenta. Completed in 1779, the building was conceived as one of the first public European museums and held the collection of the Hessian Earl and the baronial library. Since 1955, every four or five years, the Fridericianum becomes a key venue of documenta with its 3200 square meter exhibition space. Beyond the timeframe of the 100-day-long exhibition, it houses the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel
Ottoneum
The Ottoneum, built 1603-06, was commissioned by Landgrave Moritz to the architect Wilhelm Vernukken and is named after Moritz’s favorite son, Otto. It was the first permanent theater in Germany. During the 30-year war, the building was used for casting canons, and in 1696 it underwent major changes by architect Paul du Ry, for its new function as a home to the art collection of Landgrave Karl. In 1709, it became an observatory and housed the Collegium Carolinum. The base of the observatory’s cupola housed the “anatomical theater” where anatomical curiosities and instruments were stored and human and animal corpses were dissected. During the following eighty years, the building had many different functions: from an art academy to a military hospital. In 1866 during the French reign it was the land registry office. Since 1885 it has housed the Natural History Collection. During the allied bombings of 1943 the roof and second storey were destroyed. It was rebuilt without a cupola and in 1954 reopened as the Natural History Museum. The ground floor was used as exhibition space for documenta 9 (1992), and documenta X utilised the second and third floors in 1997.
Ständehaus
The Ständehaus was built in 1834–36 in neo-Renaissance style and was the Parliament building of Electoral Hesse. The new chamber interior was designed in the 1950s by the founding director of documenta, Arnold Bode (1900–1977).
Neue Galerie
The original museum - formerly named as the “Königliche Gemäldegalerie” and after 1950, the “Alte Galerie”
Orangerie
The baroque Orangerie, situated on the northern end of the Karlsaue park, was built between 1703 and 1711 by Johann Conrad Giesler as a summer residence for the Landgraves of Hesse. 1722 the “Marmorbad” was added as separate building on the west side, and in 1765 “kitchen-pavilion” by Simon Louis du Ry on the east side. The Orangerie was used as an indoor winter garden designed to protect non-native plants such as potted orange and lemon trees and palms. The side pavilions were used as living spaces. In the nineteenth century it was also used for exhibitions. During the bombings of World War II, the Orangerie was heavily damaged and almost entirely destroyed except for its exterior walls. In 1955 it housed the German Federal Garden Show, and 1959 Arnold Bode used the ruins as an exhibition space for sculpture during documenta 2. The Orangerie was also used for documenta 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11. It was renovated in 1992 and today houses the museum for astronomy and the history of technology, with the Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics and a planetarium. The permanent collection consists of milestones of science and technology documenting Kassel’s scientific past: early astronomical measuring instruments, physical experiments (such as the discovery of the vacuum by Otto von Guericke), telescopes, celestial globes, astronomical and other clocks, and calculating machines from 1623 up to Konrad Zuse’s Z11, the first computer of the Zuse AG to be mass-produced.
Gloria Cinema
Architect Ernst Flemming designed the Gloria Cinema, which was constructed from 1953-54. The house opened on February 18, 1954, with a showing of Paul Martin’s Die Privatsekretärin (1953). Located in one of the first buildings to be reconstructed on Friedrich-Ebert-Straße (former Hohenzollernstraße) during the postwar period (the groundwork of two houses that were destroyed in 1943 during the bombing of October 22nd are still visible underneath the cinema hall), it was conceived as a "Kammerspieltheater" (intimate theater) aimed at constituting a sign of modern entertainment in post-World War II Kassel. Until 2000 Filmtheaterbetriebe Georg Reiss ran the cinema. The theater was renovated in 1980 resulting in its capacity being reduced from 640-seats to 340, yet the typical 1950s flair, with the prominent round chandelier and matched wall lighting, was preserved. In 2001 the Bali GmbH, who also run the Bali cinemas in the Kulturbahnhof, took over as management. Equipped with a new projection and sound system, the Gloria is still popular today due to its unique ambiance. The cinema is one of the venues of dOCUMENTA
documenta-Halle
The documenta-Halle was built in 1992 for Jan Hoet’s documenta 9, and has established itself as a major venue for each subsequent documenta. Designed by architects Jourdan and Müller, their design proposal was chosen at the end of 1989 from among 137 entries submitted to a federally funded contest. The architecture of the documenta-Halle is shaped by three primary elements: glass, steel, and cement. The multi-functional building sits next to Kassel’s Staatstheater and follows the hill line of the northern edge of the Auepark. The building includes exhibition spaces of different heights and sizes.
Karlsaue Park
The Karlsaue park originates from a geometrically ordered pleasure garden populated with herbs and exotic plants that was built on the island between the Fulda and the “kleine Fulda” in 1586. Around 1700, when the Orangerie was built, the park was extended south-east along the Fulda by Landgrave Karl. This new design in the Baroque style, was characterized by a strict axial-symmetric layout with two fan-shaped artificial ditches, geometrical flowerbeds, and hornbeam boscages. In 1785, under Wilhelm XI, the park was remodeled into its current English style where the older geometric rigidity was loosened in favor of a more "natural" landscape. Of note, the ornamental beds in front of the Orangerie were transformed into a large bowling green. Today, the 125-hectare Karlsaue, with its meadows and old trees, is a popular recreational area frequented by joggers, sunbathers, and dog-walkers by day, and by lovers at night. Since the II. documenta in 1959, when numerous sculptures were installed in front of the Orangerie - which was then a ruin before its renovation in the 1980s - including works by Alexander Calder and Lucio Fontana, the park has been used by documenta as a venue for outdoor projects, for example during documenta 8, 1987, when Thomas Schütte installed his Eis (ice cream) pavilion in the Karlsaue, or in 2002, when Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster created Park: A Plan for Escape.
Oberste Gasse 4 (Ex-Elisabeth Hospital)
The Elisabeth Hospital was founded in 1297 by Mechthild of Cleves, the wife of Landgrave Heinrich I of Hesse. It was used as a leprosarium and later as a home for the elderly, but was destroyed in World War II. Since then, following renovation, the building has housed apartments and a restaurant.
Brothers Grimm Museum
The museum of the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is located in the Palais Bellevue, built in 1714 by Paul du Ry. It was commissioned by Landgrave Karl as an observatory, but soon was used as a residence.
Hauptbahnhof
The Hauptbahnhof was Kassel's main central station, until all long-distance trains were relocated to the newly built Bahnhof Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe in 1991. Today it is only a local commuter station, and large parts stand empty or are used for new purposes.
The Bahnhof was built between 1851 and 1856 following sketches of Gottlob Engelhard in the style of Romantic Classicism. At the beginning of the 20th century the station was extended, but mostly destroyed again through bombing during WWII. It was reconstructed between 1952 and 1960 under architect Friedrich Bätcher in the style of 1950s, with restoration and integration of some of the old features. In 1953 it was connected to the city center via the newly constructed pedestrian zone, the "Treppenstrasse".
In 1995 the disused railway station was turned into a cultural venue and became known as the KulturBahnhof. It includes the BALi cinemas, Caricatura, a gallery for comic art, the restaurant and club Gleis 1, the gallery Stellwerk, the KAZ (Kassel Architecture Centre) and the Offener Kanal Kassel (an interactive radio station). In 1997 and 2002 the KulturBahnhof was used as a venue for documenta X and 11.