The remains of the Castle can be visited
CastleBissendorf
Holter Castle
Holter Burg is the oldest castle complex in the municipality of Bissendorf near Osnabrück (Lower Saxony). It is a ruin of a hilltop castle. It was, alongside Iburg and Wittekindsburg near Rulle, the third hilltop castle in the Osnabrück Land.
Holter Burg was the ancestral seat of the noble lords of Holte. Their most important representatives were Wigbold von Holte as Archbishop of Cologne and Archchancellor of the Empire, the Essen Princess-Abbess Beatrix von Holte, and the Münster bishops Burchard von Holte, Wilhelm I von Holte, and Ludolf von Holte. Allegedly, the castle was already destroyed in 1147 by the Bishop of Osnabrück, Philipp von Katzenelnbogen (1141 to 1173), and the Counts of Ravensberg in a feud with the Lords of Holte. The castle was finally destroyed probably between 1308 and 1315. The latest archaeological investigations rather suggest an earlier destruction, as a layer of fire from the mid-13th century was found in the ground. Schloss Ledenburg in the Bissendorf district of Nemden was built as the New Holter Burg.
Construction Description+
The complex, initially built as a tower castle, was located on a plateau with a diameter of about 50 meters in a spur position. It was protected by a section ditch, which is designed as a approximately 20-meter-wide and up to 10-meter-deep flat-bottomed ditch. A roughly 2-meter-thick curtain wall protected the castle. To the east, the height difference between the top of the wall and the bottom of the ditch was about 16 meters. To the west, there was no ditch due to the steep slope. The first phase of the castle's expansion, presumed to be around 1100, included the mighty round tower and the curtain wall. Later, a chapel and a palas were added.
Today, remnants of walls are still visible, as well as the outline of a round tower. The deep moats can also be discerned. Within the double moat system, the complex had an area of about 5,000 square meters. In 1997 and 2006, archaeological excavations and preservation measures were carried out to preserve the castle ruin and make it attractive for tourism.
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Source: Wikipedia · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holter_burg_ruine_01.jpg
This description draws on the facts documented in the linked Wikipedia article; Wikipedia content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wording and editing: Mobile History.
Location: 52.2149, 8.1874