Harzburg

The Harzburg, also called Große Harzburg ("Great Harz Castle"), is a former imperial castle, situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range overlooking the spa resort of Bad Harzburg in Goslar District in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It was erected from 1065 to 1068 at the behest of King Henry IV of Germany, slighted during the Saxon Rebellion in 1073-75, and a century later rebuilt under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his Welf successor Otto IV, who died here in 1218.

Later used as a robber baron's lair, the hill castle crumbled into ruins over the centuries. Today it has almost completely disappeared; only fragments of the foundation walls and the towers together with the castle well are preserved.

Text adapted from “Harzburg” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Harzburg ranks #2,869 of 5,479 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #214 of the 349 mapped in Germany. Founded 1065, it is older than 93% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 171 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗