Burg Wildeshausen: The Medieval Ancestral Castle of the Counts of Oldenburg
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Burg Wildeshausen is a high-medieval ancestral castle in Wildeshausen, Germany, built around 1150 by Heinrich I for the Wildeshausen branch of the Counts of Oldenburg. Constructed as a motte castle, a stronghold centered on a raised mound, it became one of the largest castles of this type in Lower Saxony.
Foundation and comital rule
Heinrich I, a twelfth-century member of the Oldenburg comital dynasty, established the residence castle of his line at Wildeshausen. The castle was first explicitly mentioned in 1229. In 1232, the original complex was enlarged. Heinrich I’s grandsons then transferred the castle and the associated bailiwick of Wildeshausen to the Archbishopric of Bremen, an ecclesiastical territory whose archbishop also exercised secular authority, and received them back as a fief, meaning property granted in return for service.
After Count Heinrich IV of Oldenburg-Wildeshausen died in 1270, Wildeshausen passed to the Archbishopric of Bremen. The town received Bremen town law, and Wildeshausen thereby became the oldest town in the Oldenburg region.
Expansion, pledges, and decline
An earlier wooden tower was replaced by a stone keep, which was recorded in 1346. By around 1400, the castle had become dilapidated and underwent renovation. In 1429, the castle and town were pledged to the Bishopric of Münster, another ecclesiastical territory with secular authority. Wilhelm von dem Bussche, a later pledge-holder, repaired the increasingly deteriorated castle between 1495 and 1497.
The castle was destroyed in 1538 and again in 1578. A Swedish garrison still occupied it in 1665. By 1700, the castle buildings had been demolished apart from the keep, which continued to serve as a prison. The keep was finally blown up in 1789.
Remains
Burg Wildeshausen occupied the southeastern corner of the town’s fortifications, on a spur of the Geest, an elevated sandy landscape above northern Germany’s surrounding lowlands and floodplains. The site survives as an approximately rectangular castle mound with steep slopes. It rises 5 to 6 metres and has a plateau measuring about 60 by 45 metres.
Earthworks and perimeter defenses
In the southern and western sectors, the perimeter wall lies beneath a bank approximately 1.5 metres high. Small remains of a ditch, reaching at most 2 metres in depth, can be seen at the foot of the northern and western slopes. A crescent-shaped rise south of the mound may represent the final remnant of an outer rampart.
The fortifications consisted of a rampart with a palisade at its base and a water-filled ditch supplied by the Hunte. Along the rampart, a breastwork was formed from two fences packed with rammed earth. Blockhouses with loopholes strengthened the defensive line.
Castle buildings and courtyard
Around 1500, the buildings were arranged around a courtyard with a castle well at its center. The surviving mound preserves the principal setting in which these structures stood, while the keep and the other buildings are known through the recorded arrangement of the castle.
Keep
The stone keep stood on the castle mound after replacing an earlier wooden tower. Recorded in 1346, it later served as a prison before being blown up in 1789.
Residential buildings
A three-storey residential building stood beside the keep on the western side. It had a tiled roof, a hall, and a kitchen, and was connected to a Kemenate, a residential building associated with heated living quarters that contained rooms for living and sleeping.
Utility building
A three-part utility building occupied the southern side of the castle. Together with the residential structures and the central well, it formed part of the courtyard arrangement recorded for the castle around 1500.
Nearby sites
