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.
The castle lay on the northern river bank of the Aller on a flat elevation by an important medieval crossing. The river has changed its course over the centuries becoming the River Leine and today forms the branch known as the Old Leine (Altarm Alte Leine). Opposite the site of the old castle on the other side of the river is Ahlden House (Schloss Ahlden) and the village of Ahlden. The fortification was built in the glacial valley of the Aller. Since the 1980s it has been bisected by a state road.
The castle site consists of an oval rampart, about 150 metres across. Today just a section of it remains, about 60 metres long, 20 metres wide and 3 metres high. It is covered with tall trees and lies north of the road. The rampart is likely to have originally been a wood and earth construction about 4 metres in height. There are no longer any ruins within the rampart; they were probably carted away in the 17th century to be used for the construction of Ahlden Castle. From the plan it appears not to have been a typical lowland castle, but more like the residence of a number of burgmannen with several manorial seats within the ramparts.
In 1700, long after the demise of Bunkenburg, a brewery was built on the southern section of the rampart by the prince's household. Not privatised until the 19th century it served as a drinks business until the middle of the 20th century. Today it is a private residence.
As a result of plans to build a road through the middle of the castle site, archaeological excavations took place in 1976 and 1982. These uncovered moats and a post hole. The pottery that was discovered was dated to the 13th and 14th century. Inside the rampart shards of pottery from the 9th to the 11th century were also found along with evidence of a storage building. This could have been related to Old Ahlden (Alt Ahlden) recorded in 1295, which fell into ruin and whose remains may later have been used to build the castle ramparts.
The emergence of the castle needs to be seen in connexion with the westward expansion of the rule of the Principality of Lüneburg in the 14th century. At that time Ahlden was the part of the estate of the Bishopric of Minden. Bunkenburg was built on the state border and secured the water route of the Aller. In 1431 Ahlden was captured by the Dukes of Lüneburg.
The castle receives only scant mention in the surviving records. In 1310 low-ranking Burgmannen from the area were mentioned in connexion with it, including those from Ahlden. The knight, Johann von Escherde, is named as the Burgvogt . The last mention of the castle is in 1340. During the 14th century it apparently lost its significance and the Burgmannen moved to Rethem castle, where their family names are to be found again in the records.
Within the neighbourhood, in the valley of the Aller, there is a number of other medieval castles, some of similar design. These fortifications include those in Bierde, Essel (Uhlenburg) (Blankenburg Castle), Hodenhagen (Burg Hodenhagen), Rethem 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.
The Aller[ˈalɐ] is a 215-kilometre-long (134 mi) river in the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony in Germany. It is a right-hand, and hence eastern, tributary of the Weser and is also its largest tributary. Its last 117 kilometres (73 mi) form the Lower Aller federal waterway (Bundeswasserstraße). The Aller was extensively straightened, widened and, in places, dyked, during the 1960s to provide flood control of the river. In a 20-kilometre-long (12 mi) section near Gifhorn, the river meanders in its natural river bed.
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The Leine-Heide Cycle Path is a long-distance cycle path in Germany that has a total length of 410 kilometres (250 mi) and runs through the German federal states of Thuringia, Lower Saxony and Hamburg. Until 2009, it was called the Leine Cycle Path, after the River Leine; it ended north of the river's confluence with the Aller in Hodenhagen. Heide (‘heath’) refers to the Lüneburg Heath.
Gifhorn Castle is a castle in Gifhorn, Germany, built between 1525 and 1581 in the Weser Renaissance style. The castle was fortified until 1790 with moats, ramparts and bastions and was never captured. In the 16th century it was the Residenz of the Duchy of Gifhorn under Duke Francis of Brunswick-Lüneburg for just 10 years.
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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.
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