Did you know that Kassel is home to one of the oldest museums in the world? No? For shame! The Fridericianum is the house of culture in question, opened in 1779 as the first public museum of any kind on the planet. It is essentially one big encyclopaedia, with a number of permanent exhibitions covering all sorts of subjects. The building also served as Germany’s first parliamentary building when Napoleon’s younger bro became King of Westphalia in the early 19th century, but luckily it has since returned to its original purpose.