Burg Oberg

Burg Oberg stands on a small island fifty-five metres long and forty-five metres wide in the Peine district of Lower Saxony. The island sits in the middle of a ten-metre-wide moat whose sloping sides still hold the remains of walls from the fifteenth century. A two-storey manor house built in 1855 forms the heart of today’s Schloss Oberg, yet part of its cellar comes from a late-medieval predecessor with ribbed vaulting. The estate belonged to the lords of Oberg from the twelfth century until the family died out in 1835. After passing through several hands, it was bought in 1878 by the Leßmann family, who still farm the land today. A single medieval tower once marked the first stronghold here, rebuilt after its destruction in 1306 and later pulled down in 1392. Visitors walk across the moat bridge to reach the manor house and its surrounding farm buildings, all dating from the second half of the nineteenth century. Inside the house, the vaulted cellar shows the craft of earlier masons. Outside, the island’s grassy lawns and the still water of the moat frame a quiet view of the countryside.