Winsen Castle

Winsen (Luhe) Castle in northern Lower Saxony is the most significant secular building in the city. The building, parts of which are over 700 years old, now houses the district court.

The castle originated from a fortress at a crossing of the Luhe and was first mentioned in a document in 1315. However, another document from 1277 suggests that the castle probably already existed at that time. At the beginning of the Lüneburg War of Succession in 1371, Duke Magnus II was forced to relocate the Grand Bailiwick of Lüneburg to Winsen. Winsen Castle subsequently served as the Grand Bailiwick of Winsen and administered the Welf estates in the northern part of the Principality of Lüneburg, which was a sub-principality of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the castle and its associated lands were pledged several times by the dukes. Thus, from 1374 to 1389, it belonged to the Council of the City of Lüneburg, in 1396 it went to Hamburg and Lübeck, from 1434 with interruptions it was again in the possession of Lüneburg, and from 1493 to 1523 it even went to the Electors of Saxony. At the beginning of the 17th century, the castle was the scene of several witch trials.

From 1593 to 1617, the building was inhabited by Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the widow of William the Younger, as her retirement residence. She had the castle chapel in the only remaining tower of the castle rebuilt. In the course of the Thirty Years' War, the castle's fortifications were strengthened, and in 1628 it briefly served as headquarters for Tilly and his staff. After the Thirty Years' War, the castle was only used as the seat of the bailiffs of the Winsen district. In 1852, the district court moved into the premises, and from 1885, the castle also housed the district administration of the Winsen district until the district reform in 1932, when the Winsen district merged into the Harburg district and the seat of the district administration moved to the independent city of Harburg. Due to the war-related destruction of the district administration office in Harburg, the district administration was relocated back to Winsen Castle and to four barracks in the castle park in 1944. The district administration remained there until it moved into a new building in the immediate vicinity of the castle in 1961. For some time, the land registry office remained in the castle until it moved into its own building in the 1990s. Today, the Winsen District Court is the sole user of the castle.