| Alte Burg | |
|---|---|
| Osterode am Harz | |
 Fragment of the tower of the "Alte Burg" in Osterode/Harz | |
  Alte Burg  Alte Burg | |
| Coordinates | 51°43′48″N10°15′26″E / 51.7299°N 10.2571°E Coordinates: 51°43′48″N10°15′26″E / 51.7299°N 10.2571°E |
| Type | hill castle |
| Code | DE-NI |
| Site information | |
| Condition | ruin |
The Alte Burg is a ruined spur castle that only comprises half a bergfried and is located in the Lower Saxon district of Osterode in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. The name means "Old Castle".
The ruins stand on a hill spur between the valleys of the rivers Söse and Lerbach. Today the ruins find themselves within a cemetery. The castle ruins cannot actually be visited even though access through the cemetery is possible.
Of the old castle on a site measuring 40 x 60 metres, only a small part of the bergfried has survived. The greater part of the castle was used as a quarry and much of the stone was carried away. The remaining tower ruins were extensively repaired. Originally the round bergfried was 33 metres high and had an outside diameter of 15 metres. Its walls were up to 3.5 metres thick and it had 5 stories.
The castle was first recorded in 1153. It belonged in the 12th century to Henry the Lion. After his death, his son, Otto IV inherited it. Later he bequeathed it to Otto the Child. Other owners were Albert the Tall and Henry the Admirable. In the 14th and 15th centuries the castle became the seat of the dukes of Grubenhagen and was used as a dowager seat for the family. It was last lived in by Duchess Elisabeth who died in 1513. After that it fell into ruins.
The Harzburg, also called Große Harzburg, is a former imperial castle, situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range overlooking the spa resort of Bad Harzburg in Goslar District in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It was erected from 1065 to 1068 at the behest of King Henry IV of Germany, slighted during the Saxon Rebellion in 1073-75, and a century later rebuilt under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his Welf successor Otto IV, who died here in 1218.
Rötteln Castle, located above the Lörrach suburb of Haagen, lies in the extreme southwest corner of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, just 10 kilometres north-east of the Swiss City of Basel. The fortification was one of the most powerful in the southwest, and today, it is the third largest castle ruin in Baden.
Anhalt Castle is a ruined medieval fortification near the town of Harzgerode in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Münzenberg Castle is a ruined hill castle in the town of the same name in the Wetteraukreis, Hesse, Germany. It dates from the 12th century. It is one of the best preserved castles from the High Middle Ages in Germany.
Scharzfels Castle is the medieval ruin of a fortification located east of the village of Scharzfeld in the borough of Herzberg am Harz in central Germany. It lies in a wood on a ridge about 150 m above the Oder valley. For centuries after its construction in the 10th or 11th century it remained an impregnable fortress. The inner ward is built on a dolomite rock outcrop about 20 m high. The castle was first captured after a siege in 1761 during the Seven Years' War and then blown up.
Klopp Castle is a castle in the town of Bingen am Rhein in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. In the nineteenth century, the bergfried from the original medieval fortified castle was restored and a new building added which houses the town's administration.
The Sporkenburg is a late medieval castle ruin about one kilometre south of Eitelborn in the district of Westerwaldkreis in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Lichtenberg Castle, also called the Heinrichsburg, is a ruined castle dating to the 12th century in the Lichtenberge hills near Salzgitter in the German state of Lower Saxony. The ruins are found south of and above the Salzgitter suburb of Lichtenberg on the steep summit of the Burgberg.
The Isenburg is a ruined castle in the Western Ore Mountains between Hartenstein and the village of Wildbach in the borough of Bad Schlema. It sits high above the valley of the Zwickauer Mulde in the Free State of Saxony.
Windeck Castle, also Old Windeck Castle, is a ruined Black Forest spur castle which stands on a 378-metre-high spur in the Bühl district of Kappelwindeck, in the county of Rastatt in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
The ruins of Werdenfels Castle stand about 80 metres above the Loisach valley between Garmisch and Farchant in the county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Upper Bavaria. The spur castle was used until 1632 as the administrative centre of the County of Werdenfels, but began to fall into disrepair thereafter.
The ruins of Sayn Castle, the 12th century family castle of the counts of Sayn and Sayn-Wittgenstein, are in Sayn, part of the borough of Bendorf on the Rhine, between Koblenz and Neuwied in the county of Mayen-Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Falkenstein Castle, also called New Falkenstein (Neu-Falkenstein), is a ruined hill castle at 450 m above sea level (NHN) in the eponymous climatic spa of Falkenstein, a quarter of Königstein im Taunus in the county of Hochtaunuskreis in the German state of Hesse.
The ruins of the Thurant Castle stand on a wide slate hill spur above the villages of Alken on the Moselle in Germany. The castle is in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs to the spur castle type. Vine gardens on the sunniest slope.
Mildenstein Castle, in German Burg Mildenstein, also called Schloss Leisnig, is located in Leisnig in Landkreis Mittelsachsen, Saxony, Germany. It is a property of the Free State of Saxony and is administrated by the company State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony.
Wildenberg Castle, also called the Wildenburg, is a ruined, Hohenstaufen period castle in the Odenwald hills in Germany. It is located in the parish of Preunschen in the municipality of Kirchzell, in the Lower Franconian district of Miltenberg in Bavaria.
Nassenfels Castle stands at the edge of the market village of Nassenfels in the county of Eichstätt in Upper Bavaria. The former water castle is still lived in and may only be viewed from the outside.
Old Wolfstein Castle, is a ruined hillside castle on the eastern slopes of the Königsberg at the narrowest point in the Lauter valley near Wolfstein in the county of Kusel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Pyrmont Castle stands west of Münstermaifeld near Roes and Pillig on a slate rock outcrop above a waterfall on the Elzbach in the southern Eifel mountains in Germany. It is in the municipality of Roes in the district of Cochem-Zell.
On a hill spur above the Eifel village of Monreal in Germany's Elzbach valley, at a height of 350 m above sea level (NHN), stand two neighbouring ruined hill castles: the Löwenburg, also called Monreal Castle, and the Philippsburg. The latter is also known locally as das Rech.