Settlers of the Moorlands
For most of its history, Oldenburg was a poor land surrounded by barren moors and marshes. The city sat upon a small hill that shielded it from the storm tides that scourged the land occasionally and allowed its Frisian rulers to build a small duchy built on agriculture and trade. However, the conquest of the moorlands required powerful steam-powered traction engines that could plow the peat bogs and dredge the canals. Today, it’s a fertile agricultural region with scattered traces of the colonists that transformed the landscape.
- Oldenburg Classicism: A combination of the region’s political independence from Prussia and strong Danish influence led to a unique regional style of architecture
- The moors and marshes and the legacy of their settlement, a process that left the region a network of canals, towns, and windmills
- The homestead architecture of the Ammerland and the Fehn Settlements, with the historical alleys, windmills, and farmhouses
The lands surrounding Oldenburg were once a mire of moors and marshes as far as the eye could see. Today, the ingenuity of the German settlers to the region has transformed the barren scrublands into fertile fields and small towns. The secrets of the settlers can still be seen in the details of the landscape: farms elevated higher than the roads, remnants of peat mining, and ancient village foundations. Though the region remains defined by the city of Oldenburg and its 19th-century rulers, an ancient past is waiting to be uncovered.
- Accommodation: 6
- Transportation: 5
- Volume/Capacity: 5
- Infrastructure: 7
- Interactivity: 3
- Context: 4
- Monuments: 5
- Quality: 5
- Abstraction: 10
- Tradition: 7
