Burg Zolchow: A Late-Medieval Fortified Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Margraviate of Brandenburg
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Burg Zolchow is the remains of a late-medieval fortified lowland castle in Germany, near Kemnitz in present-day Werder (Havel), beside the Großer Plessower See. A settlement of the Hevellers, a West Slavic people of the Havel and lake region, occupied the strategically important narrow crossing before the castle’s recorded history began. The first securely dated reference is from 10 November 1290, when Heinrich von Friesack, also known as Henricus von Vriesick, transferred the Zolgowe fief to the canons of Brandenburg Cathedral.
The Cathedral Chapter’s Stronghold
The estate comprised eight Hufen, a historical measure of agricultural land, and covered approximately 140 hectares along the lakeshore. The canons, members of the cathedral chapter that administered Brandenburg Cathedral and its properties, used Zolchow as a secure refuge during repeated conflicts in the young Margraviate of Brandenburg. This medieval territorial state, ruled by margraves and later forming part of Brandenburg-Prussia, remained politically unsettled during the early period of the castle. The cathedral canons fortified their holding during approximately two centuries of control.
The name changed over time. It appears as Zolgowe before 1301 and derives from Zolkow, a Slavic name interpreted as “place of Solek” or “settlement of a man named Sulech.” Solek referred to a locator, the person responsible for establishing a settlement. The name therefore preserves a memory of the region’s earlier Slavic settlement history.
Transfer to the von Rochows
In 1528, the canons exchanged the castle with Jakob von Rochow of Golzow, a Junker, or member of the landed Brandenburg and Prussian nobility. In return, they received dues and revenues from Tremmen and Markee. Zolchow entered the possession of the von Rochow family at a time when the fortified site still formed part of a landed estate rather than serving solely as a military refuge.
Wolf Dietrich I von Rochow-Golzow sold the fortified house and its associated properties in 1616 to his cousin Hans XIII von Rochow-Plessow for 13,133 thalers. The property later passed to Hans XIII’s fourth son, Wolf Dietrich II von Rochow, and in 1649 to his next-older brother, Colonel Hans IV von Rochow of Plessow. Hans IV had also owned Stülpe since 1648. Later holders included Hans Ernst von Rochow, the district administrator Hans Wilhelm I von Rochow, and the military officer Hans Friedrich II von Rochow. Gottfried Christian von Rochow held the property briefly between these successions.
From 1616 until 1945, Zolchow belonged to the Plessow branch of the von Rochows. For part of that period, the fortified house was the branch’s principal residence, while Plessow, the family line’s namesake estate, occupied a secondary position. During the eighteenth century, Zolchow served as a widow’s residence. A family chronicle published in 1861 traditionally connected a room in the house with Hans Friedrich II von Rochow, calling it the “general’s room.”
Decline of the Estate
Adam Ernst II von Rochow was born at Zolchow in 1705. He later became associated with the construction of the new Stülpe Palace. His son Friedrich Ludwig von Rochow, born in 1745 from Adam Ernst’s second marriage to Christina Luise von Thümen-Blankensee, later commissioned a new manor house at Plessow beside the old wing of its predecessor.
Under Friedrich Ludwig’s successor, Zolchow appears to have lost importance compared with the principal estate. It became a leased Vorwerk, or agricultural outwork operated with a larger manor, while the family increasingly concentrated on forestry in the Ferch, Kammerode, and Resau area. Zolchow was absent from some estate directories of 1879 and 1896, but it was again listed by name in 1914 and 1929, without a stated holding size.
The penultimate owner was Friedrich Ludwig, known as Fritz von Rochow-Plessow, who lived in Potsdam and served as a Ritterschaftsrat, a councillor associated with a regional institution representing the landed nobility. The last estate owner was Hans von Rochow-Stülpe of the Plessow line. He spent summers at Plessow but retained his principal residence at Stülpe.
The physical decline of the castle began before the end of the von Rochow period. In 1805, tenants levelled the earthwork and used the displaced soil to fill the former moat, allowing the grounds to be used agriculturally. A fire badly damaged the farm building in 1892, and the other buildings increasingly decayed. The residential building was later used for many years as a grain and potato store before its demolition in 1916. The smaller buildings were left to deteriorate. The surviving cellar ruins are protected as listed monuments.
Remains
Burg Zolchow lies between the autobahn crossing built in the 1930s and the nearby shore of the Großer Plessower See. The surviving site is partly concealed by overgrown vegetation. Its physical evidence consists chiefly of vaulted cellar ruins and wall fragments built from red brick and dressed fieldstone, together with the altered ground on which the former fortified enclosure stood.
Fortified Enclosure
The medieval castle occupied a lowland position beside the lake. Its moat was approximately 12 metres wide and ended at both sides in the Großer Plessower See. A drawbridge crossed the water-filled boundary, while an earthwork rampart, or vallum, strengthened the enclosure. The earthwork was described as almost impregnable, but it was levelled in 1805 and the moat was filled with the resulting soil. These changes removed major elements of the original defensive layout.
Buildings and Surviving Fabric
Cellar Vaults
The visible cellar remains probably date from the thirteenth century. Red brick and dressed fieldstone form the principal surviving fabric, and the vaulted spaces preserve part of the earlier castle beneath the later residence. Wall fragments around the ruins provide further evidence of the construction and extent of the buildings. The cellar remains survive in fragmentary form and are protected as listed monuments.
Manor House and Agricultural Buildings
A multi-storey manor house was later erected over the older cellar vaults. It had a steep gabled roof and a tower-like oriel, a projecting window or bay that extended from an upper storey. The building was converted into a grain and potato store and demolished in 1916, leaving the earlier cellar ruins as the main surviving part of the residence.
The agricultural complex also included a farm building and smaller ancillary structures. Fire severely damaged the farm building in 1892, after which the smaller buildings were abandoned to decay. The remaining physical evidence is therefore concentrated in the vaulted cellars and fragments of brick and fieldstone walls, while the former moat and defensive earthwork survive only through the altered ground layout.
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