Obermarsberg is one of seventeen quarters in the municipality of Marsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the site of an Old Saxon hillfort and refuge castle, the Eresburg, on a hill 130m above the Diemel river, a tributary of the River Weser.
The location was originally the site of an Iron Age hillfort, founded probably sometime before or during the era of the Roman-Germanic wars; including the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (circa AD 9) and the Battle of the Weser River (circa AD 16). Although it is unclear whether the surrounding area was controlled by the Cherusci, Chatti, or perhaps Marsi (as described by Tacitus), no particular reference to the Eresburg is known prior to the Saxon Wars (AD 770–785).
During the Saxon Wars, the stronghold was repeatedly occupied by Widukind, leader of the recalcitrant Saxons (those refusing to adopt Christianity and the overlordship of the Franks), and then abandoned to Charlemagne's forces as the Saxons retreated to the home of Widukind's in-laws, today Denmark. Local lore states that as Charlemagne's forces approached, the town's common folk would move into the Drachenholler, a vast system of underground gypsum caves beneath Eresburg, where they remained unnoticed until Charlemagne's people left. Though only a legend, the caves can still be seen, along with several watchtowers dated to the same time period (circa AD 800).
Very near Eresburg is Priesterberg, a hill overlooking the valley of the Diemel. This was reportedly the location of Pagan sacrificial rites in the pre-Christian era. It is also thought to be the home of Irminsul, a sacred tree or pillar which represented the Germanic central pillar of the world. In AD 772, Charlemagne destroyed the Irminsul on Priesterberg (elsewhere reported as "near Paderborn" or "near Eresburg"). The Irminsul was replaced by a stone structure, possibly a tower, the crumbling remains of which can still be seen.
Around AD 800 the first Christian church was constructed in Eresburg proper. Although the current church in Obermarsberg only dates to the 13th century, it is at least the second or third church to be built over the remains of Charlemagne's original church.
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Coordinates: 51°28′N8°51′E / 51.467°N 8.850°E
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The Saxons were a group of early Germanic peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country near the North Sea coast of northern Germania, what is now Germany. In the late Roman Empire, the name was used to refer to Germanic coastal raiders, and also as a word something like the later "Viking". Their origins appear to be mainly somewhere in or near the above-mentioned German North Sea coast where they are found later, in Carolingian times. In Merovingian times, continental Saxons had also been associated with the activity and settlements on the coast of what later became Normandy. Their precise origins are uncertain, and they are sometimes described as fighting inland, coming into conflict with the Franks and Thuringians. There is possibly a single classical reference to a smaller homeland of an early Saxon tribe, but its interpretation is disputed. According to this proposal, the Saxons' earliest area of settlement is believed to have been Northern Albingia. This general area is close to the probable homeland of the Angles.
The 780s decade ran from January 1, 780, to December 31, 789.
The 770s decade ran from January 1, 770, to December 31, 779.
Year 772 (DCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 772 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 775 (DCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 775 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 779 (DCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 779 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 782 (DCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 782 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 784 (DCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 784 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Widukind, also known as Wittekind, was a leader of the Saxons and the chief opponent of the Frankish king Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 777 to 785. Charlemagne ultimately prevailed, organized Saxony as a Frankish province, massacred thousands of Saxon nobles, and ordered conversions of the pagan Saxons to Christianity. In later times, Widukind became a symbol of Saxon independence and a figure of legend.
The Massacre of Verden was an event during the Saxon Wars where the Frankish king Charlemagne ordered the death of 4,500 Saxons in October 782. Charlemagne claimed suzerainty over Saxony and in 772 destroyed the Irminsul, an important object in Saxon paganism, during his intermittent thirty-year campaign to Christianize the Saxons. The massacre occurred in Verden in what is now Lower Saxony, Germany. The event is attested in contemporary Frankish sources, including the Royal Frankish Annals.
The Externsteine is a distinctive sandstone rock formation located in the Teutoburg Forest, near the town of Horn-Bad Meinberg in the Lippe district of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The formation is a tor consisting of several tall, narrow columns of rock which rise abruptly from the surrounding wooded hills.
An Irminsul was a sacred, pillar-like object attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxons. Medieval sources describe how an Irminsul was destroyed by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. A church was erected on its place in 783 and blessed by Pope Leo III. Sacred trees and sacred groves were widely venerated by the Germanic peoples, and the oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air.
Old Saxony is the original homeland of the Saxons. It corresponds roughly to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Nordalbingia and western Saxony-Anhalt, which all lie in northwestern Germany. It should not be confused with the modern German state of Saxony, which is in eastern Germany, adjoining the northwest border of the Czech Republic.
The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated. In all, 18 campaigns were fought, primarily in what is now northern Germany. They resulted in the incorporation of Saxony into the Frankish realm and their forcible conversion from Germanic paganism to Christianity.
The Eresburg is the largest, well-known (Old) Saxon refuge castle (Volksburg) and was located in the area of the present German village of Obermarsberg in the borough of Marsberg in the county of Hochsauerlandkreis. It was a hill castle built on the plateau of a low table hill, known as the Eresberg, at a height of 130–150 metres above the Diemel, a tributary of the Weser, in the extreme south of the Saxon Gau of Engern on the border with the Duchy of Franconia.
Angria or Angaria is a historical region in the present-day German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. The chronicler Widukind of Corvey in his Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres denoted it as the central region of the medieval Duchy of Saxony lying along the middle reaches of the Weser river between Westphalia and Eastphalia. Its name was derived from the Germanic Angrivarii tribe which had joined the Saxon tribal confederation, and it was centered on the town of Minden, see of a bishopric since 803.
A refuge castle or refuge fort is a castle-like defensive location, usually surrounded by ramparts, that is not permanently occupied but acts as a temporary retreat for the local population when threatened by war or attack. In former times such sites were also described as giant castles because their origin was ascribed to giants.
The Sigiburg was a Saxon hillfort in Western Germany, overlooking the River Ruhr near its confluence with the River Lenne. The ruins of the later Hohensyburg castle now stand on the site, which is in Syburg, a neighbourhood in the Hörde district of Dortmund. Archaeological evidence suggests the site was occupied in the Neolithic era. The hillfort was raised ca. 700 by Westphalian Saxons. During the Saxon Wars, it was taken by the Franks under Charlemagne in 772, retaken by the Saxons in 774, and taken again and refortified by Charlemagne in 775.
Hadugato or Hathagat was an early Saxon leader, considered a founding father of Saxony by the tenth century. In 531, he led the Saxons to victory over the Thuringians at the battle of Burgscheidungen, "a legendary victory, and one so great that [Hadugato] appeared to [later] Saxons as an epiphany of divinity itself." The Chronica ducum de Brunswick records that in the Duchy of Brunswick in the sixteenth century a memorial week was still observed following Michaelmas to celebrate the Saxon victory over the Thuringians.
The Desenberg near Daseburg in the North Rhine-Westphalian county of Höxter is 343.6 m above sea level (NHN) and the most prominent hill in the Warburg Börde, a relatively level, fertile Börde region. The hill is a basalt knoll crowned by the ruins of Desenberg Castle and a relict of recent geological history and volcanism, as well as medieval feudalism and warfare. The present shape of the Desenberg has arisen through weathering.
