Burg Hallermund

The Burg Hallermund stands as a ruined hilltop fortress about 2.5 kilometres south of Springe in the Saupark Springe nature reserve. It once commanded the small County of Hallermund from a steep, cone-shaped hill called the Hallermundskopf, rising 218 metres above sea level. The site lies roughly 500 metres south of the Jagdschloss Springe, the park’s main entrance, and is reached by a winding woodland path of about 1.2 kilometres. The fortress first appears in records in 1189 when Ludolf and Wilbrand of Hallermund pledged it to Bishop Adelog of Hildesheim. By the early 15th century the Welf dukes had taken control and granted the castle to the Spiegelberg family, who turned it into a notorious robber-baron stronghold. In 1434–35 Duke Henry the Elder of Brunswick, acting for the towns of Hannover, Hildesheim, Pattensen and Münder, ordered its demolition. Archaeologists have since found arm­our-piercing crossbow bolts, lead shot, ironwork and coins from the 13th and 14th centuries. Visitors follow a narrow, steep path up the wooded mound to the oval plateau, 50 by 30 metres, where only low stone heaps and a few wall stubs remain. A shallow ditch and outer bank still mark the outer defences, and the site is now thickly grown with young beech trees. About 300 metres east lie the grassy outlines of a small outpost. Below the hill, the Eselsteich pond, fed by the Eselsbach stream, supplied water and fish; excavations there in 1820 and again in 2014 yielded medieval tools, jewellery, pottery and coins, including a Hildesheim bracteate of c.1250 and a Hamburg silver hohlpfennig of the 14th century.