Esbeck Castle

Esbeck Castle was a castle in Esbeck in the district of Helmstedt, whose former shape is recognizable in the buildings of a present-day manor house.

The castle was located in the northwestern part of the village on a slight elevation. The castle site today presents itself as a round plateau of about 80 meters in diameter, on which, in the north and west, semicircularly arranged farm buildings are located. In the east is a two-winged main building, which dates from the 18th century. The entire complex is surrounded by a moat up to 14 meters wide.

Esbeck Castle was first mentioned in a document in 1263, when the Bishop of Halberstadt enfeoffed the castle, acquired by Ludolf von Esbeck, to Margrave Johann von Brandenburg. In 1322, the castle belonged to Duke Otto the Mild. In the years from 1346 to 1368, according to the feudal book of the Brunswick Dukes, there were numerous further pledges of the castle by Duke Magnus I. Among the pledgees were Günzel von Bartensleben as well as the brothers Paridam and Iwan von dem Knesebeck and the von der Asseburg. In 1371, Duke Magnus I granted the city of Braunschweig the right to demolish Esbeck Castle.