Putzwei

Putzwei is the remains of a late medieval or early modern East Frisian chieftain’s stronghold in what is now Sengwarden, a district of Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony. The site once formed part of the small lordship of In- and Kniphausen. Written records from the 14th century mention Hillert Hedden, a judge of the Östringen district, as a possessor of Putzwei. A century later the chieftain Hillert Tiark Hillers ranked among the wealthiest taxpayers in the Sengwarden parish. After 1593 the seat was abandoned and the site reverted to farmland. The surviving earthworks still show the layout of the vanished fortress. A circular mound about seventy metres across rises barely a metre above the surrounding fields. The defences consisted of two concentric ditches with an intervening rampart enclosing roughly eleven hectares. Only parts of the inner ditch remain today. To the east a smaller enclosure, also surrounded by a water-filled ditch, measures about fifty by thirty metres. Two further enclosures lie to the south, one of them slightly raised above the ground. Archaeologists believe these plots once held a burial ground. Visitors walk over the quiet farmyard that now covers the old stronghold. In one of the garden beds stands a stone sarcophagus thought to date from the 12th century. The low grassy mound and the fragmentary ditches are the only traces left of the chieftains who once ruled here. The peaceful fields and the occasional passing tractor replace the vanished halls and palisades.