King's Tower (Bockenem)
The Königsturm is located on Bundesstraße 243 between Bockenem and Bornum am Harz . It was built around 1440 and was part of the Bockenem Landwehr as a customs post . It is in the middle of Ambergau directly on Königsweg ( Via Regia ), not far from the old imperial palace Dahlum . To the north it is about 60 kilometers to Hanover and to the south 60 kilometers to Göttingen . In 1995/96 the tower was extensively restored.
history
Its creation is at the request of the city council of Bockenem to the Hildesheim prince-bishop Johann III. attributed by Hoya in 1412. The bishop gave permission for the Bockenem Landwehr to fortify the southern border of the Principality of Hildesheim against the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . In this way, the citizens of Bockenem wanted to protect themselves and their herds from attacks and looting outside the city walls.
By 1444, five defense towers with connected customs stations were built on the roads leading into the Braunschweig region, including the Königsturm, which is the only one of the five towers that has survived to this day. The Bockenemer Landwehr was planted along the border as an impenetrable thorn hedge about 20 meters wide and provided with a ditch in the middle. During the night the wooden border gates were locked. Trade tariffs were levied on the Königsturm until after the Hildesheim collegiate feud (1519 to 1523) the Königsturm became Brunswick and the customs barriers fell away.
In 1643, during the Thirty Years' War , the royal tower came back to the prince-bishopric of Hildesheim and customs duties were raised again. When the prince-bishopric lost its sovereignty to Prussia in 1802, the royal tower became Prussian. This meant that trade tariffs were no longer applicable and only road tolls were due. The new building of the customs station, built around 1800, became useless and served as a residential building and restaurant.
The old customs house served as a barn. This state of affairs continued when Napoléon Bonaparte gave his brother Jerome the Kingdom of Westphalia ( Royaume Westphalie ) together with the royal tower in 1807 . From 1813 to 1815 the Königsturm belonged to the Electorate of Hanover . After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, he came to the newly created Kingdom of Hanover and marked the border with the Duchy of Braunschweig . The German War of 1866 led to the dissolution of the Kingdom of Hanover and the formation of the Prussian Province of Hanover. With that the royal tower was again Prussian. The Königsturm has belonged to the state of Lower Saxony since 1946 .
Until around 1925 there was an inn on the Königsturm , most recently with a bowling alley and public dance events on the weekend. In 2004 the 560th anniversary of the tower was celebrated.
Web links
- Königsturm at warttuerme.de
- Entry for the Königsturm control room in the private database “All castles”.
Coordinates: 51 ° 59 ′ 18 ″ N , 10 ° 8 ′ 2 ″ E