Wohlenstein Castle

The castle site has an oval shape with dimensions of 45 x 15 m, which was divided into two areas. At the keep, there was a gate tower that led from the outer bailey to the main castle. A historical depiction shows the complex with a keep, gate tower, and palas, but without walls. Today, the only structural remains of the castle are three sides of the once 24 m and now 18 m high keep, which has walls almost 3 m thick. Outwardly, the complex had a double ditch and defensive wall system, of which the outer rampart and the deep moat are still preserved today. The depth of the moat from the top of the rampart is still over 10 meters. It is presumed that the original access to the castle led through the rampart in the north and that after the destruction of the castle in 1519, a new access road was created to the south in the direction of Bilderlahe.

There are two historical depictions of the castle. The older one is found on the tombstone of Hildesheim Bishop Heinrich III, who acquired the castle in 1357. It depicts the castle around 1363. Another depiction is found on a map made by Johannes Krabbe in 1591, which shows the castle around 1520 during the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud.

The castle was built in 1295 by a collateral line of the Wohldenberger, with the abbess of Gandersheim Abbey acting as liege lord. In 1357, it fell to the Bishop of Hildesheim. In 1349, the Wohldenberger sold the castle to the noble lords of Homburg. In 1357, Bishop Heinrich III of Hildesheim acquired the castle. At the beginning of the 16th century, Duke Erich I of Calenberg-Göttingen besieged the castle at the beginning of the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud due to numerous feudal and property disputes. He captured the complex, occupied by only 15 men, on May 30, 1519, and completely destroyed it. After the Diocesan Feud, the castle and the Wohlenstein office went to Duke Heinrich the Younger of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. He relocated the administration from the castle down to the newly built administrative building in Bilderlahe. The castle's stones were reused for the Heber outpost and the farm buildings of the Bilderlahe domain.