Blankenburg Castle (German: Burg Blankenburg) was a small castle in the village of Engehausen in the municipality of Essel in the German state of Lower Saxony. It dates roughly to the 13th century. All that remains are parts of the surrounding rampart. Today a rural farmstead, formerly a manor house, stands on the site of the old castle.
The castle was built on the north bank of the river Aller [1] above the flood plain. Today it lies on a silted-up branch of the old river. The ruins of a rampart can still be seen on the southeastern side of the former castle site; the opposite side of the embankment had been levelled around 1900. The extent of the castle has been estimated at 50 x 50 m. Today an old farmhouse stands in the middle of the site. At the beginning of the 20th century the foundations and parts of a vault were reported to have been found.
The castle was attributed to the Lords of Blankena or Blankenhagen, who were mentioned in the middle of the 13th century in the records in connexion with the Hodenhagen Castle. Their line must have soon died out however.
In the local area there is a number of other medieval castles in the valley of the Aller. These include fortifications in Bierde, Ahlden (Bunkenburg), Essel (Uhlenburg), Rethem, Hodenhagen (Hodenhagen Castle) and Grethem (Blankenhagen Castle).
Heidekreis is a district (Landkreis) in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Harburg, Lüneburg, Uelzen, Celle, Hanover, Nienburg, Verden and Rotenburg.
Bad Fallingbostel is the district town (Kreisstadt) of the Heidekreis district in the German state of Lower Saxony. Since 1976 the town has had a state-recognised Kneipp spa and has held the title of Bad since 2002. It has close ties to Walsrode, a few miles to the west. Until 2015, there was a British Army base in Bad Fallingbostel, It also hosted Defender 2020, the largest US Army/NATO exercise since the Cold War. The town has around 11,000 inhabitants.
The Böhme is a right-bank, northeastern tributary of the Aller in the district of Soltau-Fallingbostel in the north German state of Lower Saxony. The river is 72 kilometres (45 mi) long.
Blankenburg (Harz) is a town and health resort in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, at the north foot of the Harz Mountains, 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Halberstadt.
A burgstall is a German term referring to a castle of which so little is left that its appearance cannot effectively be reconstructed. It has no direct equivalent in English, but may be loosely translated as "castle site". Variations in the literature include Burgstelle, Altburgstelle, die Burgställe (plural), Burgstähl (archaic) or abgegangene Burg. In German castle studies, a burgstall is a castle that has effectively been levelled, whereas a "ruin" (Ruine) still has recognisable remnants of the original castle above the level of the ground.
The Heath Railway is a regional railway line in North Germany that crosses the Lüneburg Heath from which it derives its name. Most of the line is unelectrified and single-tracked. It links Buchholz in der Nordheide with Hanover, the capital city of Lower Saxony. Together with the east-west Uelzen–Langwedel railway, this north-south line is one of the two most important railways on the heath.
Vierde is a village within the borough of Bad Fallingbostel in Soltau-Fallingbostel district in the Heidmark.
Hodenhagen Castle is the site of a former lowland castle (Niederungsburg) built in the 13th century in the vicinity of Hodenhagen in the German state of Lower Saxony. This medieval manor house only lasted just under 100 years and was destroyed in 1289.
Bunkenburg was a castle built during the 13th and 14th centuries in the shape of a circular fort located on the banks of the Aller opposite Ahlden in north Germany. Only a section of the rampart, roughly 60 metres long and 3 metres high, exists today. The name of the castle is probably derived from the material, bog iron, used for its construction and known in common parlance as Bunke.
Uhlenburg is the site (Burgstall) of a lowland castle that was built in the 14th century close to the River Aller near Essel in the German state of Lower Saxony. This Late Middle Ages aristocratic seat only existed for a few decades towards the end of the 14th century and was destroyed by force in 1393/94.
Blankenhagen Castle was a lowland castle (Niederungsburg), whose ruins are located by the River Aller near Grethem in Lower Saxony, Germany. The motte-and-bailey castle is believed to have been built around 1200. It is supposed that there used to be fortified buildings on the two low mounds or mottes, and that a bailey was constructed on an outer island-like area.
The village of Dorfmark is part of the borough of Bad Fallingbostel in Heidekreis district in the German state of Lower Saxony.
Calenberg Castle was a medieval lowland castle in central Germany, near Schulenburg in the borough of Pattensen, 13 km west of the city of Hildesheim. It was built as a water castle in 1292 by the Welf duke, Otto the Strict, in der Leine river meadows between 2 branches of the Leine river on the southern part of the chalk marl hill of the Calenberg. At the start of the 16th century it was converted into a fort (Feste). In the 15th century, Fort Calenberg gave its name to the Welf Principality of Calenberg. Following the Thirty Years' War it lost its military importance and was slighted. Today it is a ruin with underground vaults that are surrounded by high ramparts.
Heimburg Castle, also called the Altenburg or Alteburg, is a ruined castle on an oval hilltop about 330 metres above sea level (NN) which is located just north of the Harz Mountains in central Germany. The ruins of this hilltop castle stand above the village of Heimburg in the borough of Blankenburg in the district of Harz in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is checkpoint no. 84 in the Harzer Wandernadel hiking network.
The Struvenburg was a medieval castle immediately east of Benzingerode, a village in the borough of Wernigerode in the district of Harz in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Today only a few earthworks remain. Very little is known about this castle. The name may be derived from the adjective struf = scrubby or rough.
Salzburg Castle stands on the edge of a plateau above the town of Bad Neustadt an der Saale in Lower Franconia in southern Germany. The large Ganerbenburg is still partly occupied today and not all areas are accessible to the public.
Saaleck Castle is a hill castle near Bad Kösen, now a part of Naumburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
The Hohenburg is a ruined medieval castle near Lenggries in Bavaria, Germany. Once a dominating centre of power in the region, it was destroyed by fire on 21 July 1717.
The ruins of Bärnfels Castle are the remains of a late mediaeval aristocratic castle on the southern edge of the village of Bärnfels in the municipality of Obertrubach in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in Bavaria. The ruins of the spur castle are freely accessible.