The Castle stands on an island in the large lake, in the center of the city of Schwerin. For 1,000 years it has been the seat of government of the Abodrites, a confederation of West Slavic tribes, later the center of power for the Dukes and Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg. Its annular shape dates back to the walls of a Slavic castle around the year 965. The transformation phases of this building process over the centuries are widely documented from around 1500 by a large amount of written and pictorial evidence. Schwerin Castle is considered the most important building of romantic historicism in Europe. It took its form through conversions and new buildings from 1845 to 1857 according to the plans of five important architects: Friedrich August Stüler, Hermann Willebrand, Georg Adolf Demmler, Gottfried Semper and Ernst Friedrich Zwirner.
Its current Neo-Renaissance architecture is modeled after French Renaissance palatial architecture. Inspired by Chambord Castle on the Loire, the regional architecture of Mecklenburg also plays an important role in today's architectural design.
