Oldenburger Wall

The Oldenburger Wall stands where the town of Oldenburg in Holstein meets a low, marshy plain criss-crossed by old watercourses. These channels once linked the site to the Baltic through the Oldenburger Graben, giving the early fortress and its settlement a commanding position for long-distance trade. The settlement was called Starigard, meaning ‘old fort’, a name that later became Oldenburg. The remains form part of one of Schleswig-Holstein’s most important archaeological monuments. Archaeological work by Karl Wilhelm Struve in the 1950s and again in the 1970s and 1980s uncovered traces of a slawish prince’s court and the timber-and-earth ramparts built between the 7th and 12th centuries. Danish kings Waldemar I and Waldemar II rebuilt the site after their wars in the 12th century, but it was destroyed in 1261 and never rebuilt. Excavations revealed weapons, tools and the outlines of halls and bridges that once stood inside the oval ramparts. Visitors today see grassy banks rising a few metres above the surrounding ground, with the inner area largely level with the modern town. A small building sits within the former stronghold, and nearby the Wallmuseum displays finds from the site. The museum explains how the slawish builders used wooden boxes filled with earth to create the walls, and how the fortress controlled trade across the region for centuries.