Information

Celle Castle is the oldest Residenzschloss of the Guelph dynasty to have survived in its entirety. The castle chapel, originally freestanding but integrated into the four-wing complex around 1660, is Europe’s only example of a Lutheran place of worship from the early Protestant era whose painted decorative scheme remains virtually intact. 

The highlight of the chapel, lavishly decorated with painted surfaces, picture-bearing gallery fronts, sandstone reliefs, and carvings, is its collection of over 70 panel paintings on the parapets and continuous galleries and in the ducal boxes. Most of the paintings are from the workshop of the Antwerp painter Marten de Vos the Elder (1532–1603). Commissioned by Duke William the Younger of Braunschweig und Lüneburg, these works were completed between 1563 and 1576. Twenty-four are attributed to Marten de Vos himself, among them the Crucifixion that forms the centerpiece of the altar, as well as the altar’s outer wings The Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus and The Birth of Jesus, the paintings on canvas The Transfiguration of Christ and Salvator Mundi, plus other key works in the pictorial program, whose theme is the redemption of mankind through the Lutheran faith.   

Juliane Schmieglitz-Otten, Director, Residenzmuseum im Celler Schloss (February 2026)