Stargard Castle

Burg Stargard is divided into an outer and an inner bailey with a total of eleven buildings. The inner bailey has an approximately oval floor plan and is surrounded by a moat, along with the outer bailey to the east, which houses the Amtsreiterhaus. The keep is the landmark of the town. The high importance of the castle is shown by the fact that all buildings were constructed as brick buildings.

Burg Stargard and the castle garden can be visited. Museum admission and ascent of the keep are subject to a fee.

Keep

The keep was built around 1245 on a foundation of hewn boulders. In the lower section, the walls are over four meters thick and have a circumference of 27 meters. The entrance is nine meters above the ground and was originally accessible via a covered wooden staircase. The tower dungeon, in turn, lies 13 meters below the entrance and thus far below the castle courtyard pavement. Above the dungeon, there were once three tower rooms.

The tower burned out in 1647 after a lightning strike. Grand Duke Georg of Mecklenburg-Strelitz had Friedrich Wilhelm Buttel convert the keep into an observation tower from 1821 to 1823. Including the nine-meter-high spire, the keep measures 38 meters in height. In good visibility, it offers a 30-kilometer panoramic view as far as the windmills of Woldegk. In 1966, the tower was renovated.

Crooked House

On December 18, 1919, the so-called Crooked House burned down to its foundations due to arson and remains a ruin to this day.

Upper Gate (Castle Chapel)

The castle chapel was built between 1240 and 1250 as a three-story gatehouse. The gate was set into the castle's boundary walls but protrudes significantly from them. From 1280, a chapel was initially set up on the upper floor of the gate. Only in 1520 were the drawbridge removed, the passage and the middle window connected and bricked up, and the building redesigned into a double chapel. Sixty years later, the chapel was extended towards the courtyard. In the 17th century, it served as a carriage house and barn. Only between 1758 and 1770 was the building again used for spiritual purposes as a town church. After this period, it was again a storage room.

The building has a central pointed arch window with two side round arch windows. The gable shows 18th-century stone half-timbering. The side pilaster strips and the black glazed round arch friezes of the former gate are preserved.

Lower Gate

The lower gate was built around 1250 as a two-story brick building, which housed a chapel on the upper floor. In the 16th century, the gate was reinforced and in the 17th century, it was rebuilt. Since 1755, it has been partially destroyed; today, only the facade remains. The gable is encompassed by a round arch and once consisted of a stepped three-window group, which is now bricked up. To the side of the bridge, as at the upper gate, there are pilaster strips and round arch friezes with black glaze. The former drawbridge was replaced by a stone dam in the 16th century.

Inn

The building was erected in the 13th century, its outer wall simultaneously forming part of the main castle's ring wall, which supported the battlement. From 1938 to 1944, the restaurant "Zur Alten Münze" was located there, after which a youth hostel moved in. After extensive renovation, the building was reopened as a hotel and restaurant in 1999.