Stamping station 187 / Lauenburg

The Lauenburg castle ruins were a two-part hilltop castle and are located on the castle hill above Stecklenberg.

The cas­tle com­plex was first men­tioned in a doc­u­ment in 1164 and was prob­a­bly built over a peri­od of ten years. It con­sists of the approx. 200 m long “Great Lauen­burg” and the approx. 50 m long “Small Lauen­burg”, which is to be regard­ed as the out­er bai­ley. It was once the largest cas­tle com­plex in the Harz region, a Salian impe­r­i­al cas­tle which, like the Harzburg, was prob­a­bly built under HEINRICH IV (1050–1106). In 1165 it went to HEINRICH THE LION, who had to hand it back to Bar­barossa in 1180. In 1267, it was tak­en over by the Mar­grave of Bran­den­burg and giv­en as a fief to the Counts of Regen­stein until it was final­ly con­quered and restored under the Bish­op of Hal­ber­stadt, ALBRECHT III (1366–1390). After its lat­er use as a quar­ry, it fell into Pruss­ian state own­er­ship in 1897. 

From the obser­va­tion tow­er of the out­er bai­ley, you have a beau­ti­ful view of the Dev­il’s Wall near Wed­der­sleben and the Harz fore­land. The stamp box is locat­ed next to the infor­ma­tion board below the out­er bailey. 

The quick­est way to reach Lauen­burg Cas­tle is to fol­low the sign­post­ed path from the cen­ter of Steck­len­berg via Steck­len­burg Castle.