List of castles and palaces in Lower Saxony

Last updated December 15, 2024

Numerous castles and palaces are found in the German state of Lower Saxony . These buildings, some of which have a history of over 1000 years, were the setting of historical events, domains of famous personalities and are still imposing buildings to this day.

This list encompasses those structures built as fortified sites, usually described in German as a Burg (castle or manor house) or Festung (fort/fortress), as well as those built primarily as aristocratic residences - stately homes and palaces - usually referred to in German as a Schloß or Palais/Palast.

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Braunschweig or Brunswick is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser. In 2016, it had a population of 250,704 and in 2024, it has a population of 272,417.

Salzgitter is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven Oberzentren of Lower Saxony. With 101,079 inhabitants and 223.92 square kilometres (86.46 sq mi), its area is the largest in Lower Saxony and one of the largest in Germany. Salzgitter originated as a conglomeration of several small towns and villages, and is today made up of 31 boroughs, which are relatively compact conurbations with wide stretches of open country between them. The main shopping street of the young city is in the borough of Lebenstedt, and the central business district is in the borough of Salzgitter-Bad. The city is connected to the Mittellandkanal and the Elbe Lateral Canal by a distributary. The nearest metropolises are Braunschweig, about 23 kilometres to the northeast, and Hanover, about 51 km to the northwest. The population of the City of Salzgitter has exceeded 100,000 inhabitants since its foundation in 1942, when it was still called Watenstedt-Salzgitter. Beside Wolfsburg, Leverkusen and Eisenhüttenstadt, Salzgitter is one of the few cities in Germany founded during the 20th century.

The Principality of Calenberg was a dynastic division of the Welf Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg established in 1432. Calenberg was ruled by the House of Hanover from 1635 onwards; the princes received the ninth electoral dignity of the Holy Roman Empire in 1692. Their territory became the nucleus of the Electorate of Hanover, ruled in personal union with the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1714 onwards. The principality received its name from Calenberg Castle, a residence of the Brunswick dukes.

Osterode am Harz, often simply called Osterode, is a town in south-eastern Lower Saxony in central Germany on the south-western edge of the Harz mountains. It was the seat of government of the district of Osterode. Osterode is located on the German Timber-Frame Road.

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.

Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle was the repudiated wife of future King George I of Great Britain. The union with George, her first cousin, was a marriage of state, arranged by her father George William, her father-in-law the Elector of Hanover, and her mother-in-law, Electress Sophia of Hanover, first cousin of King Charles II of England. Sophia Dorothea is best remembered for her alleged affair with Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck that led to her being imprisoned in the Castle of Ahlden for the last thirty years of her life.

Bad Iburg is a spa town in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teutoburg Forest, 16 km south of Osnabrück.

A water castle, sometimes water-castle, is a castle where natural or artificial water is part of its defences. It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats or natural waterbodies such as island castles in a river or offshore. The term comes from European castle studies, mainly German Burgenkunde. When stately homes were built in such a location, or a Wasserburg was later rebuilt as a residential manor, the German term becomes Wasserschloss, lit. "water palace/manor".

Braunschweig Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the German city of Braunschweig (Brunswick). It is about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) southeast of the city centre and was opened on 1 October 1960, replacing the old passenger station on the southern edge of the old town. The train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn, Erixx, Metronom and WestfalenBahn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weser Renaissance</span> Form of Northern Renaissance architectural style

Weser Renaissance is a form of Northern Renaissance architectural style that is found in the area around the River Weser in central Germany and which has been well preserved in the towns and cities of the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hohnstein Castle</span> German castle ruins

Hohnstein Castle is one of the largest and best-preserved castle ruins in Germany and is located near Neustadt in the vicinity of Nordhausen in Thuringia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hildesheim Diocesan Feud</span>

The Hildesheim Diocesan Feud or Great Diocesan Feud, sometimes referred to as a "chapter feud", was a conflict that broke out in 1519 between the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim and the principalities of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Calenberg that were ruled by the House of Welf. Originally just a local conflict between the Hildesheim prince-bishop John IV of Saxe-Lauenburg and his own prince-bishopric's nobility (Stiftsadel), it developed into a major dispute between various Lower Saxon territorial princes. The cause was the attempt by Prince-Bishop John to redeem the pledged estates and their tax revenue from the nobles in his temporalities, the prince-bishopric. The diocesan feud ended with the Treaty of Quedlinburg in 1523.

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.

The Saldern family or von Saldern, is the name of an old German aristocratic family from the areas of Hildesheim and Brunswick Land. The family seat of the same name is an eponymous castle on the River Fuhse in Salzgitter-Salder. Originally the family, whose branches are still alive today, only owned estates in the Lower Saxony area, but from the middle of the 16th century they also owned extensive property in the March of Brandenburg.

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.

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List of castles and palaces in Lower Saxony

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