Berum Castle

Burg Berum stands in the Berum district of Hage, a town in East Frisia, northern Germany. It occupies a low rise beside the flat coastal plain, its red-brick walls rising from a double ring of moats. The castle first appears in records from 1310 as the stronghold of a local chieftain’s family. By the 15th century it had passed to the Cirksena counts, who enlarged it into a château with three wings and a front castle. In 1445 Count Ulrich I celebrated his wedding there, an event that marked the castle’s growing importance in regional politics. The castle’s history includes episodes that shaped East Frisian affairs. In 1600 the Treaty of Berum was signed inside its halls, transferring three lordships to East Frisia. A century later a young count died after a quarrel with an imperial officer, an incident still recalled in local chronicles. Princess Christine Charlotte lived there as a widow in the 1690s and commissioned further embellishments, making the building one of the grandest princely palaces of its time. Today visitors see the surviving front castle, a long brick building attached to the old defensive wall. A brick gate tower marks the entrance, its pediments bearing the princess’s coat of arms. The outer moat and parts of the Baroque garden planted in 1712 remain intact. The castle now operates as a private guesthouse, its interiors blending historic fabric with modern comforts.