Ruin on the castle hill
The ruins on the Burgberg are the remains of a larger building on the Burgberg in the Brunnental in Bad Helmstedt in Lower Saxony . Despite archaeological investigations, the earlier function of the building could not be clearly clarified. It could have been a late medieval dwelling and storage house that was part of a courtyard from the 14th and 15th centuries that no longer exists today.
history
The Brunnental has belonged to the Helmstedt monastery Marienberg since the 13th century . In 1530, an inventory of the monastery names the remains of the building on the castle hill as a castle site. At the beginning of the 19th century there was still a lot of masonry. The earlier wall was also clearly visible.
Research history
A first excavation with the uncovering of the wall remains of a 6.6 × 16.3 meter building took place in 1891, during which ceramic remains and iron parts were recovered. Charred beams and burned straw, as well as burnt clay, indicated that the building had burned down. The walls were 50 cm thick and were built using poor wall technology. This cast doubt that it was an earlier castle .
In 1963, the archaeologist Hans-Adolf Schultz from the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum carried out another excavation. He suspected that the remains of the building were the relics of the castle of the noble lords of Warberg, which was destroyed around 1200 . In the course of his investigations it turned out that it could not have been a castle because of the weak walls. He interpreted the remains as a small chapel .
In 2011 another excavation took place with the uncovering of the wall foundations. It revealed that it was a two-part residential building with a basement. Boulders and rubble stones were used as building material . The stone building remains were restored by voluntary excavation helpers until 2014, so that the old wall crowns remain visible and give an impression of the dimensions of the earlier building. In part, the remains of the wall were covered with earth again to protect them.
interpretation
The size and wall of the building speak for a representative building. The findings obtained in the more recent archaeological investigation of 2011 suggest that the building could have been part of a larger courtyard. It could have belonged to the Marienberg monastery.
Web links
- Archaeological investigations on Burgberg in Brunnental - a cloister courtyard of the Marienberg monastery? at helmstedt.de
- Ruins on Burgberg near Agenda 21 Helmstedt
- Historical reconstruction drawing
Coordinates: 52 ° 13 ′ 59 ″ N , 11 ° 3 ′ 30 ″ E