The area along the Weser was very prosperous economically between the Reformation and the Thirty Years War, so there was a great deal of building activity. Renaissance castles, aristocratic estates, town halls and civic architecture here were little affected by he effects of war or modernization. They have survived in very large numbers, and the quality is very high. The present volume offers a representative selection of the region's castles and palaces. Architecture and court culture are placed in a European context that goes beyond older approaches based on the stylistic history and shows that forms demonstrating princely prestige have qualities in common well outside the region.