Burg Elmendorf

The Burg Elmendorf, also called Elmendorfer Burg or Drei-Hügel-Motte, stands in the Dreibergen nature reserve on the northern shore of Zwischenahner Meer near Elmendorf, a village in Bad Zwischenahn. It was a motte-and-bailey castle built on three earthen mounds, covering about 1.2 hectares. Archaeologist Dieter Zoller’s excavations between 1966 and 1968 proved the mounds were part of a medieval fortification rather than ancient burial sites. The site’s history reaches back to the 9th century when a walled farmstead stood here. By the 12th century it belonged to the counts of Oldenburg, including Egilmar I and his son Egilmar II. In 1134 the castle chapel of St Bartholomäus was consecrated by Archbishop Siwar. The main western mound, seven metres high and fifty to fifty-five metres wide, once supported a twelve-sided wooden tower. Today visitors walk among the three grassy mounds and the remains of the surrounding ditch system. The larger mound’s plateau measures roughly twenty-two by twenty-five metres, while the smaller eastern mound is about twelve by twenty metres. Between the mounds and the lake lie the foundations of the medieval chapel. The whole area forms part of the protected landscape, offering quiet views over the water and the flat surrounding countryside.