Burg Kahlenberg

Burg Kahlenberg stands on a small artificial mound beside the Neile river in the Rhode district of Langelsheim. The mound rises five metres above the surrounding water meadows and is covered with trees. A wide, silted-up ditch once encircled the site, with a low outer bank still visible today. The mound’s flat top measures only six to seven metres across, showing how modest the medieval fortification was.

Archaeologists from the University of Hannover excavated the site in 1999 and found traces of a wooden tower built on a sandstone base. Beneath the mound they uncovered a second ditch enclosing an area with 12th- and 13th-century pottery, metal slag and the remains of a slate-roofed building. These finds suggest the castle served as a small administrative centre for local metalworking.

Visitors walk across open fields and meadows to reach the mound. The surrounding landscape of the Lutterer Becken is quiet farmland, with scattered farmhouses nearby. The steep edges of the mound and the shallow ditch still mark the old defences, while the trees on top give a sheltered spot for looking across the valley.