Blankenhagen Castle (german: Burg Blankenhagen) was a lowland castle (''Niederungsburg''), whose ruins are located by the River Aller near

Grethem Grethem is a municipality in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. G ...

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 ...

, Germany. The

motte-and-bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

castle is believed to have been built around 1200. It is supposed that there used to be fortified buildings on the two low mounds or mottes, and that a bailey was constructed on an outer island-like area.

Location

The castle stood in the

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artif ...

landscape of the Aller valley about half a kilometre northeast of

. It lies today between the Old Leine (200 m west) and Aller (400 m east) rivers. It is accessible via a track that leads to the ferry crossing over the Aller to Eickeloh.

Description

Of the two preserved castle mounds, which are devoid of any stone ruins, the higher one has a diameter today of about 25 m. It is roughly 4.5 m high and covered by bushes. The mound is surrounded by a hollow which may have been the old, inner ditch. About 40 m further northeast is another artificially built mound. It is triangular in shape and is about 30 m long. It has a height of 3 m and is also covered in bushes. Both mounds were surrounded by a

circular rampart A circular rampart (German: ''Ringwall'') is an embankment built in the shape of a circle that was used as part of the defences for a military fortification, hill fort or refuge, or was built for religious purposes or as a place of gathering. T ...

, which has only partly survived. It has a present-day height of around 1.3 m and a width of 13 m. In front is a hollow that was probably the outer ditch. In the immediate vicinity of the castle it has been established that there was an island-like elevation, on which a bailey could have been located. The castle site appears in the Royal Hanoverian Map Series (''Kurhannoversche Landesaufnahme'') of 1779. It is still present in Prussian mapping (''Preußische Neuaufnahme'') around 1900 shown as a semi-circular rampart.

Archaeological Research

The site was added to the list of cultural monuments in 2002 and in 2004 a more detailed inspection was carried out. This included a

magnetic survey Magnetic surveying is one of a number of methods used in archaeological geophysics. Magnetic surveys record spatial variation in the Earth's magnetic field. In archaeology, magnetic surveys are used to detect and map archaeological artefacts an ...

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircr ...

and the production of a digital relief model. In 2005 security measures were taken on the main motte, which had suffered from damage as a result of cattle grazing.

History

The castle is not mentioned in the records. It is thought to have been founded by the lords of Blankena (

Blankenhagen Blankenhagen is a municipality in the Rostock district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after ...

), who were closely related to those of Hodenberg. The lords of Blankenhagen were mentioned in the 13th century in connexion with Hodenhagen Castle. Their line seems to have soon died out however.

Similar fortifications in the local area

Within the neighbourhood, in the valley of the Aller, there is a number of other medieval castles, some of similar design. These fortifications include those in Bierde, Ahlden ( Bunkenburg), Essel ( Uhlenburg) ( Blankenburg Castle), Hodenhagen ( Hodenhagen Castle) and Rethem. Blankenhagen belongs to the group of former castles, that were researched between 2003-2005 by the ''Burgenlandschaft Aller-Leine-Tal'' (B.A.L.T.) project. The project was supported by the European aid programme LEADER+, because it had located castle sites in the Aller-Leine Valley area.

Literature

* Burgen im Fluss, Herausgeber: Landkreis Soltau-Fallingbostel, Bad Fallingbostel, 2005, {{Coord, 52.730367, N, 9.584756, E, type:landmark_region:DE-NI, display=title, format=dms Buildings and structures in Heidekreis Castles in Lower Saxony Archaeological sites in Germany Ruined castles in Germany Lowland castles