Delmenhorst Castle

Delmenhorst Castle, also known as Delmenhorst Palace, is a vanished moated castle on the "Castle Island" in the city of Delmenhorst in the Oldenburg Land in Lower Saxony. The castle was the center of Delmenhorst's city life for almost 500 years.

After the end of the Stedinger Wars in 1234, the Oldenburg counts founded a moated castle, surrounded by two moats, to secure their conquered Stedinger territory, starting with a small farm "De Horst" in the swampy Delme lowlands. On July 27, 1259, the castle was first mentioned ... in castro nostro Delmenhorst in a document when Count Johann I of Oldenburg sealed a land sale.

From 1281 to 1436, the lordship of Delmenhorst belonged to the elder line of the Counts of Delmenhorst and then reverted to the County of Oldenburg. From 1440 to 1482, the lordship of Delmenhorst was held by Count Gerd the Brave, after which the lordship fell to Münster. In 1547, Count Anton I of Oldenburg reconquered the lordship and the county.

In the 16th century, the castle was expanded into a representative and significant Renaissance palace with a pleasure garden. In 1667, the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst became Danish. In the 17th century, the palace began to decay.

From 1711, after the county was pledged to the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the palace was sold for demolition. Gradually, the demolition of the castle began, and in 1787, the rest of the castle tower, the "Blue Tower," a heraldic symbol of the city of Delmenhorst, was torn down, and the stones were used for the construction of the new city church.

At the end of the 19th century, the "Peter-Elisabeth-Hospital" was built on the empty castle grounds. It was converted into a vocational school at the beginning of the 20th century and demolished in 1972.