Burg Wahrenholz

Burg Wahrenholz stands on a meadow beside the Ise in the Gifhorn district. The site is a vanished 11th-century ringwork, once defended by an oval bank and ditch. The remains of the outer ditch still show clearly on air photographs.

The fortress was built between 1013 and 1022 to guard the Ise crossing. Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim ordered its construction after a Slawen raid in 994. Archaeologists found black-brown pottery with simple rims dating from about 1000 to 1070. A well-preserved oak beam gave a felling date between 1030 and 1078.

Visitors walk over a grassy hollow where the inner oval once held wooden buildings. The outer ditch, now filled with water, marks the limits of the site. A long trench cut in 2014 shows the buried floor of the stronghold. Finds include 76 medieval sherds and a wavy-rim horseshoe. The whole earthwork is small—only 70 to 75 metres across—yet it still shapes the meadow beside the mill stream.