The Fridericianum is a museum in Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Built in 1779, it is one of the oldest public museums in Europe. The quintennial art festival documenta

Documenta

documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...

 is centred on the site.

The Fridericianum originally housed the state library of Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, the art collections of the Hessian landgrave

Landgrave

Landgrave was a title used in the Holy Roman Empire and later on by its former territories. The title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor...

s, collections of antiques, weaponry, natural history, astronomy and physics, cork models of antique buildings, and wax figures of historic Hessian landgraves. However, the exhibits were moved into other museums in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the library was heavily damaged in World War II, after which the surviving books were moved into the Kassel University Library

Universitätsbibliothek Kassel

The Universitätsbibliothek Kassel is a library located in the city of Kassel, Germany. Composed of the collections of the former Landesbibliothek and Murhardsche Bibliothek der Stadt Kassel as well as that of the Kassel University library, amongst the library's holdings is the...

.

Today the Fridericianum hosts temporary art exhibitions put on by the city of Kassel, the Kunsthalle

Kunsthalle

Kunsthalle is, generally, in German speaking regions a term for a facility mounting temporary art exhibitions. Some are run or supported by a local Kunstverein, an art association of local collectors and artists...

 Fridericianum and the Kunstverein of Kassel, as well as documenta.