Marsh castle

Last updated
Calvorde Castle, a marsh castle, depicted around 1600 Burg Calvorde.jpg
Calvörde Castle, a marsh castle, depicted around 1600

A marsh or marshland castle (German : Sumpfburg) is a type of lowland castle that is situated in marshy or boggy countryside. It uses the natural inaccessibility of the terrain to its defensive advantage.

In contrast to a moated castle, with a marsh castle, an area of marsh or bog was used or incorporated as an obstacle to the approach. Marsh castles were mostly built on mounds within these landscapes, in a similar way to a Wallburg. In some places, however, an adjacent area of marsh or bog was simply used for protection on one or more sides and the castle itself was built on solid land, as was the case with the first castle in Danzig (modern Gdansk), for example. [1] Most castles of this type were built in the lowlands of rivers flowing into the East and North Sea between Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg.

Marsh castles are historically one of the oldest types of castle and were built as early as the Early Middle Ages by the Slavic peoples in the aforementioned areas. The distinction between them and moated castles is fluid.

According to Swiss historians, a marsh castle can be defined in the broadest sense as a complex whose outer defences are built up by exploiting natural obstacles, such as meandering river courses, marshes and bogs, as protection [2] or which are built on mounds entirely within these obstacles. Thus a marsh castle can also be described as a moated castle protected by a natural waterbody.


Examples of well-known marsh castles in Germany include:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aller (Germany)</span> River in Germany

The Aller 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. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salzwedel</span> Town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Salzwedel is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is the capital of the district (Kreis) of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, and has a population of approximately 21,500. Salzwedel is located on the German Timber-Frame Road.

Central Germany is an economic and cultural region in Germany. Its exact borders depend on context, but it is often defined as being a region within the federal states of Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, or a smaller part of this region, such as the metropolitan area of Leipzig and Halle plus the surrounding counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freyburg, Germany</span> Town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Freyburg is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Unstrut, 9 km northwest of Hanseatic Naumburg, 63 km from Leipzig and 231 km from Berlin. It is part of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Unstruttal. On 1 July 2009 it absorbed the former municipalities Pödelist, Schleberoda, Weischütz and Zeuchfeld. Freyburg consists of the Ortsteile (divisions) Dobichau, Freyburg, Nißmitz, Pödelist, Schleberoda, Weischütz, Zeuchfeld and Zscheiplitz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerichow</span> Town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Jerichow is a town on the east side of the river Elbe, in the District of Jerichower Land, of the state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. With about 270 square kilometres (100 sq mi), the municipality of Jerichow is one of the largest municipalities in area size in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvörde</span> Municipality in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Calvörde is a municipality in the Börde district of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde Flechtingen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Löbenicht</span>

Löbenicht was a quarter of central Königsberg, Germany. During the Middle Ages it was the weakest of the three towns that composed the city of Königsberg, the others being Altstadt and Kneiphof. Its territory is now part of the Leningradsky District of Kaliningrad, Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altstadt (Königsberg)</span>

Altstadt was a quarter of central Königsberg, Prussia. During the Middle Ages it was the most powerful of the three towns that composed the city of Königsberg, the others being Löbenicht and Kneiphof. Its territory is now part of Kaliningrad, Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oebisfelde-Weferlingen</span> Town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Oebisfelde-Weferlingen is a town in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was formed on 1 January 2010 by the merger of the former municipalities Bösdorf, Döhren, Eickendorf, Eschenrode, Etingen, Hödingen, Hörsingen, Kathendorf, Oebisfelde, Rätzlingen, Schwanefeld, Seggerde, Siestedt, Walbeck and Weferlingen. On 1 September 2010 Everingen was also incorporated. These 16 former municipalities are now Ortschaften or municipal divisions of the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowland castle</span> Type of castle situated on a lowland, plain, or valley floor

The term lowland castle or plains castle describes a type of castle that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur. The classification is extensively used in Germany where about 34 percent of all castles are of the lowland type.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvörde Castle</span>

Calvörde Castle is located in Calvörde in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Its existence was first recorded in the late 13th century. In the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period it was frequently fought over due to its location between the territories of Brandenburg, Magdeburg and Brunswick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Avenue Road</span>

The German Avenue Road is a tree-lined holiday route that runs the length of Germany from Rügen on the Baltic Sea to Lake Constance on its border with Switzerland. About 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) long, it is Germany's longest scenic route. The project is supported by the "German Avenue Route Association", whose members are the German Automobile Club ("ADAC"), the German Tourism Association, the German Forest Conservation Society, and other institutions. The forestry scientist, Hans Joachim Fröhlich, was its major proponent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great dolmen</span> Type of dolmen in Nordic megalith architecture

The great dolmen or grand dolmen is a type of megalithic site of the Funnelbeaker culture (TBK) that occurs in Nordic megalith architecture, primarily in the east of what is now German Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and which has two different types of entrance. Neolithic monuments are features of the culture and ideology of Neolithic communities. Their evolution and function act as indicators of social development. The type of site, called Stordysse in Danish, does not follow the criteria listed below. In Germany, dolmens with three or more capstones are described as great dolmens and are divided into:

Michael Kilian is a German legal scholar and a former justice of the Constitutional Court of Saxony-Anhalt. Until 1982 he was the private secretary of Walter Hallstein, who was the President of the Commission of the European Economic Community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saaleck Castle</span> Castle

Saaleck Castle is a hill castle near Bad Kösen, now a part of Naumburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Karl Eduard Schneider</span>

Ludwig Karl Eduard Schneider was a German politician and botanist, known for his studies of flora native to what is now called Saxony-Anhalt.

Goseck, a monastery built on the foundations of a castle, as well as the vineyard of Dechantenberg is located in the municipality of Goseck of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It has been proposed by Germany for inscription in the List of World Heritage. The World Heritage nomination Naumburg Cathedral and the High Medieval Cultural Landscape of the Rivers Saale and Unstrut is a representative of the processes that shaped the continent during the High Middle Ages between 1000 and 1300: Christianization, the so-called "Landesausbau" and the dynamics of cultural exchange and transfer characteristic for this very period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schloss Hessen</span>

Schloss Hessen is a schloss or castle in Hessen, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It originated as medieval moated castle before being converted into a Renaissance princely palace in the 16th century. Its heyday was as the summer residence of the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the 17th century. It was later used as a farm house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flechtingen water castle</span> German moated castle complex

The Flechtingen water castle or Flechtingen moated castle is a largely well-preserved castle complex in the centre of the municipality of Flechtingen in the district of Börde in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

References

  1. ↑ Köhler, General Gustav (1893). Geschichte der Festungen Danzig und Weichselmünde bis zum Jahre 1814 in Verbindung mit der Kriegsgeschichte der freien Stadt Danzig. Part One: Bis zum Jahr 1734. Breslau: Koebner. p. 3.
  2. ↑ Keller, Willy (1970). "Allgemeines zu Sumpf- und Wasserburgen." In: Willy Keller: Die Wasserburg Mülenen (= Notes of the Historical Society of the Canton of Schwyz. 63, 1970, ISSN   2234-9588). Verlag Einsiedler Anzeiger, Einsiedeln 1970, pp. 9-13.
  3. ↑ Project for the preservation of Oebisfelde Castle at denkmalschutz.de
  4. ↑ Weber, Manfred (2002). Die Süpplingenburger Dorfchronik. BoD GmbH, Norderstedt 2002, ISBN   3-8311-4513-X, pp. 23–46, (Vgl. Leseprobe).
  5. ↑ Von Cohausen, August von Cohausen (1884). Der römische Grenzwall in Deutschland. Militärische und technische Beschreibung desselben. Hauptband. Kreidel, Wiesbaden, p. 64.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.