Stamp point 80 / Regenstein castle ruins

Regenstein Castle and Fortress (293 m above sea level) was built on a sandstone rock north of Blankenburg and is a striking feature in the landscape of the Vorharz.

The cas­tle became famous above all through Count Albrecht II von Regen­stein (1310–1349), who fre­quent­ly had dis­putes with the rulers of the sur­round­ing towns, the Bish­op of Hal­ber­stadt and the Abbess of Quedlin­burg in the 1330s. These sto­ries were roman­ti­cized in the nov­el “The Rob­ber Count” by Julius Wolff. In the 15th cen­tu­ry, the Regen­stein fam­i­ly of counts moved to Blanken­burg Cas­tle. The cas­tle fell into dis­re­pair and became a ruin. 

The medieval cas­tle com­plex was expand­ed into a fortress by Prus­sia from 1671. In 1736, light­ning struck the pow­der tow­er and severe­ly dam­aged the fortress. In 1757, the French con­quered the Regen­stein. The Prus­sians recap­tured it just five months lat­er on Feb­ru­ary 12, 1758 and ren­dered the facil­i­ty unus­able. The gun­pow­der store, which was locat­ed rel­a­tive­ly high up, was blown up in the process. All that remains of the fortress are the case­mates, the rock­work and the restored entrance gate. Char­ac­ter­is­tic are the many cave-like rooms carved into the rock, which today house an exhi­bi­tion of archae­o­log­i­cal finds from the cas­tle area. Even the horse sta­bles were carved into the rock. 

Johann Wolf­gang von Goethe vis­it­ed the Regen­stein togeth­er with the painter Georg Mel­chior Kraus on Sep­tem­ber 11, 1784 on his third trip to the Harz Moun­tains to con­duct geo­log­i­cal stud­ies. Two draw­ings and a rock sam­ple in Goethe’s rock col­lec­tion com­mem­o­rate this visit. 

The Regen­stein is one of the most inter­est­ing cas­tles in the Harz Moun­tains. Con­quer­ing the sand­stone rock is an impres­sive expe­ri­ence. In addi­tion to breath­tak­ing panoram­ic views, even the youngest vis­i­tors will mar­vel at the struc­ture carved into the rock. 

The start­ing point for a vis­it is the sign­post­ed park­ing lot below the cas­tle, which is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble from the A36. It is a good idea to first walk along the nar­row, sign­post­ed path to the left of the park­ing lot to the Regen­stein­müh­le HWN 82 and the Sand­höhlen im Heers HWN 81. From the sand caves, sev­er­al sign­post­ed paths lead up to the castle.