A marsh or marshland castle (german: Sumpfburg) is a type of

lowland castle The term lowland castle or plains castle (german: Niederungsburg, Flachlandburg, Tieflandburg) describes a type of castle that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur. The cl ...

that is situated in

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

y or boggy countryside. It uses the natural inaccessibility of the terrain to its defensive advantage. In contrast to a moated castle, with a marsh castle, an area of marsh or bog was used or incorporated as an obstacle to the approach. Marsh castles were mostly built on mounds within these landscapes, in a similar way to a Wallburg. In some places, however, an adjacent area of marsh or bog was simply used for protection on one or more sides and the castle itself was built on solid land, as was the case with the first castle in Danzig (modern Gdansk), for example. Most castles of this type were built in the lowlands of rivers flowing into the

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

between

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

and

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label= Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schweri ...

. Marsh castles are historically one of the oldest types of castle and were built as early as the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

by the Slavic peoples in the aforementioned areas. The distinction between them and moated castles is fluid. According to Swiss historians, a marsh castle can be defined in the broadest sense as a complex whose outer defences are built up by exploiting natural obstacles, such as meandering river courses, marshes and bogs, as protection or which are built on mounds entirely within these obstacles. Thus a marsh castle can also be described as a moated castle protected by a natural waterbody. Examples of well-known marsh castles in Germany include: * Weferlingen Castle, a ruined castle in Oebisfelde-Weferlingen in the state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it th ...

. * Oebisfelde Castle, the oldest surviving marsh castle in Germany, also situated in Oebisfelde-Weferlingen in Saxony-Anhalt. * Storkow Castle, in Storkow the state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

. * Calvörde Castle, in

Calvörde Calvörde () is a Municipalities in Germany, municipality in the Börde (district), Börde district of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde ("collective municipality") Flechtingen (Verbandsgemeinde), Flechtingen. Geography C ...

in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. * Süpplingenburg Castle, where

Lothair III Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg (1075 – 4 December 1137), was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 before ...

, Duke of Saxony, later Emperor of the Roman-German Empire grew up. * Predecessor castle to Harburger Schloss * The fortified village of Altenburg in Hanau was designated by Karl August von Cohausen as a marsh castle.Von Cohausen, August von Cohausen (1884). ''Der römische Grenzwall in Deutschland. Militärische und technische Beschreibung desselben.'' Hauptband. Kreidel, Wiesbaden
p. 64

References

{{Reflist {{Fortifications Castles by type