Güntersburg

Last updated April 05, 2019

The ruined castle of Güntersburg stands about 2 km (1.2 mi) southwest of Güntersberge in the Harz mountain range of central Germany.^[1]

Güntersberge Locality of Harzgerode in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Güntersberge is a village and a former town in Harz District, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It holds the status of an officially recognized resort town since 2001. Güntersberge, together with the other municipalities of the former Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Unterharz, merged into the town of Harzgerode as of 1 August 2009.

The Harz is a Mittelgebirge that has the highest elevations in Northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart, Latinized as Hercynia. The Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz with an elevation of 1,141.1 metres (3,744 ft) above sea level. The Wurmberg is the highest peak located entirely within the state of Lower Saxony.

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, and the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.

Condition

The ruins are located on the 485 m (1,591 ft) Kohlberg hill above the Selke valley. The castle site is very large and has an area of about 3 hectares (7.4 acres). It probably included a fortified settlement, possibly preceding modern Güntersberge, beside the proper castle. To the northwest the site was protected by a rampart and a 150 m (490 ft) long ditch, whose scale can still be easily made out today. To the southeast the site is bounded by the hillside that falls steeply into the Selke valley.

Selke (river) tributary of the River Bode in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

The Selke is a river of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements. Generally, these are referred to as city walls or town walls, although there were also walls, such as the Great Wall of China, Walls of Benin, Hadrian's Wall, Anastasian Wall, the Cyclopean Wall Rajgir and the metaphorical Atlantic Wall, which extended far beyond the borders of a city and were used to enclose regions or mark territorial boundaries. In mountainous terrain, defensive walls such as letzis were used in combination with castles to seal valleys from potential attack. Beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions – representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced.

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices. In older fortifications, such as hillforts, they are usually referred to simply as ditches, although the function is similar. In later periods, moats or water defences may be largely ornamental. They could also act as a sewer.

Of the former buildings only a few foundation walls are recognisable. Still easy to make out are the foundation walls of the two gatehouse towers. Little is known of its history. The castle was probably built in the 11th century.^[1] First mentioned around 1326, the site was already recorded as devastated by about 1600. Among its former owners were the Lords of Kneitlingen and the Counts of Stolberg.

A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures.

Kneitlingen is a municipality in the Wolfenbüttel district in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is part of the Samtgemeinde Elm-Asse. The most recent German census counted a population of just 853 people.

The County of Stolberg was a county of the Holy Roman Empire located in the Harz mountain range in present-day Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was ruled by a branch of the House of Stolberg.

According to legend, the castle was occupied by robber barons at last and one of their victims, the daughter of a merchant, is still supposed to appear as a white apparition today to those venturing near to the castle at night.^[1] The bunch of keys she carries with her was once supposed to had brought a curse on a monk.

Robber baron (feudalism) unscrupulous feudal landowner who resorted to banditry while protected by his fiefs legal status

A robber baron or robber knight was an unscrupulous feudal landowner who imposed high taxes and tolls out of keeping with the norm without authorization by some higher authority, while protected by his fief's legal status. Some resorted to actual banditry. Medieval robber barons most often imposed high or unauthorized tolls on rivers or roads passing through their territory. Some actually robbed merchants, land travelers, and river traffic, seizing money, cargoes, entire ships, or engaged in kidnapping for ransom.

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References

1 2 3 Die Burgruine Güntersburg at www.harzlife.de. Accessed on 5 Dec 2010.

Coordinates: 51°38′16.3″N10°58′15.4″E / 51.637861°N 10.970944°E / 51.637861; 10.970944

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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[harzlife-1] 1 2 3 Die Burgruine Güntersburg at www.harzlife.de. Accessed on 5 Dec 2010.