New Castle (Königskrug)

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New lock
Information board in front of the castle

Information board in front of the castle

Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: Burgstall
Standing position : Lower nobility
Construction: Stone, half-timbered
Place: King jug
Geographical location 51 ° 44 '47.8 "  N , 10 ° 34' 28.6"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 44 '47.8 "  N , 10 ° 34' 28.6"  E
Height: 755  m above sea level NN
New Castle (Lower Saxony)
New lock
Information board at the castle with a sketch of the location and the reconstruction
Grass area on the castle site

The New Castle is the stable of a late medieval tower castle near Königskrug in the Harz Mountains . With a height of 755 above sea level. NN. it was the highest castle in Lower Saxony .

location

The castle point is located directly on the B 4 next to the Königskrug restaurant and a bend in the road. The Heidenstieg or Kaiserweg , which leads from Bad Harzburg to Tilleda , passes there as the Harzquerweg .

Excavations

The first archaeological investigation was carried out in 1861 by Hilmar von Strombeck, and another in 1890 by H. Brinckmann. More recently, an excavation took place in 1958, which, despite the disturbance of the findings from the two previous excavations and the construction of the main road, still delivered useful results. Among other things, the foundations were examined. Indications of the wooden construction of the tower were found in a soil layer with fire and rubble. The charcoal remains indicated that the castle had been destroyed by fire.

Several red tiles from a tiled stove were found on the excavation area , so that the building's heating system can be assumed. Ceramic parts from jugs and jugs were also found. Iron finds were small horseshoes and whetstones . Lumps of iron ore found indicated that iron was previously smelted . The excavation finds were classified from the 12th century to the 15th century. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Institute for Monument Preservation from Hanover had a geoelectrectic investigation carried out to determine the endangerment of the ground monument and to explore the size of the tower.

description

The main component of the complex was a square castle tower with a side length of 10 meters on an approximately 1.5 meter thick stone foundation. While the basement and the ground floor are to be assumed to be stone, the rest of the tower construction should have consisted of half-timbering . The facility was secured with a circular, presumably wall-reinforced earth wall with a diameter of 28 meters. In front of it ran a moat almost 2 meters deep and around 6 meters wide , which is still recognizable today as a shallow hollow. The inner, protected castle area had a diameter of 25 meters, with the ditches and ramparts on the outside, the diameter of the entire complex was 54 meters.

history

The tower castle stood in the Reichsforst Bodfeld , which belonged as a fief to the Counts of Blankenburg . She monitored the Heidenstieg as the borderline between the dioceses of Hildesheim and Halberstadt . As in other small medieval castles, the seat of a representative of the lower nobility, such as a ministerial or castle man , is to be assumed in the New Palace . No written records are known about the builders or residents of the castle.

The castle site is sketchily drawn on a map from 1543, according to which it was located on a mountain and had towers, walls and castle buildings. The incorrect location on a mountain suggests that the draftsman was working according to other information. Nor can it be concluded from the drawing that the castle still existed at the time the map was created.

Stone material from the castle was used when the Königskrug restaurant was built in the early 19th century. In the foundations of the inn there are hewn stone blocks made of red sandstone. Today's Burgstelle is right next to a footpath on Bundesstraße 4, where an information board points to it. The terrain is overgrown and uneven ground is barely noticeable.

literature

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