Burg Harsefeld

The Burg Harsefeld once stood in the village of Harsefeld in Lower Saxony. Built in 969 by Heinrich von Stade, it served as a stronghold for the counts of Stade before they moved their seat to Stade castle early in the 11th century. Archaeologists found traces of a wooden hall and a sunken hut dating from the 8th and 9th centuries beneath later remains. A stone foundation 9 metres long and 1 metre wide, bonded with mortar, was uncovered near the centre of the site. The counts chose Harsefeld as their burial place around the year 1000, and Heinrich’s son founded a provost’s house there between 1001 and 1010. By 1109 this had become a Benedictine monastery that survived until 1648. Excavations in 1992 and 1993 revealed only a small part of the roughly one-hectare site, yet they showed a 3.5-metre-deep and 10-metre-wide ditch with an inner rampart enclosing an area of about 100 by 110 metres. Today the reconstructed rampart frames the excavated foundations of the monastery. A manor building added in 1740 stands at the edge of the former cloister grounds. The open site is used for public events, letting visitors walk among the remains of the ditch, wall and buried structures while the surrounding village keeps the memory of the counts and monks alive.