Altenburg Castle

In the middle of the 12th century, Bishop Ulrich of Halberstadt had a castle built on the sandstone massif "Langer Stein" south of Halberstadt. This fortress, first mentioned in a document in 1151, received very different names from various chroniclers. The castle was called, among others, "Schloss auf dem Langen Stein", "Langenstein", "Bischofstein", "Alte Burg", "Altenburg" and "Hoppelburg". In its heyday, the fortress covered the entire plateau of the rock spur and thus measured about 300 meters in length and up to 50 meters in width. In numerous warlike conflicts, the castle on the Langer Stein was destroyed several times and subsequently rebuilt. Shortly before the end of the Thirty Years' War, in 1644, the Swedes plundered the fortress, turning it into a ruin. From 1653 onwards, the remaining walls of the castle complex were demolished. Its stones were used as building material for numerous buildings in the surrounding villages.

Today, only parts of the moat and a few remains of the fortress walls of the castle on the Langer Stein are preserved. Along the former access road to the castle, there are several former cave dwellings that can be visited. From the summit of the Langer Stein, you have a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape of the northern Harz foreland, characterized by numerous hills and small mountains. In your field of vision are, among others, the village of Langenstein, the Thekenberge, and large parts of the course of the Goldbach stream.