Lauenburg Castle

Lauenburg Fortress was built in 1182 by Bernhard of Saxony. The name derives from the Slavic word Lave for the Elbe river. He chose a well-defensible hill above the river near the burnt-down Ertheneburg as its location, having the stones from there transported to Lauenburg for building material. While still under construction, the fortress was destroyed in 1184 by supporters of Henry the Lion, but by order of the Emperor, the looters subsequently had to help rebuild the fortress. Around 1203, after a temporary conquest by Adolf I of Dassel, it fell under Danish rule and was liberated in 1228 by Albrecht I. He made the fortress his main residence. In the 15th century, long-lasting reconstruction and expansion works, especially under Duke Johannes IV, transformed the fortress into a castle. The castle consisted of several individual buildings, was largely built of brick and decorated in the Renaissance style. It included the tower, a large and a small stone building, a kitchen house at the large stone building, the brew and bakehouse, meat house and vogt's house, as well as the residence house, gatehouse and Wittum, which were under one roof, and finally the stable.

On January 29, 1616, a fire broke out on the castle hill, rendering the castle uninhabitable, but not destroying it. A Danish military map from 1638 still shows the castle. Duke Franz II subsequently took up residence at Neuhaus Castle in the Land Hadeln. His successor August moved the residence to Ratzeburg Castle in 1619. Although Duke Julius Heinrich planned a new building after the war, it was never executed. In 1708, the administrative building, now referred to as the castle, was erected.

The mighty gun tower forms the center of the castle hill and the landmark of Lauenburg. It was completed in 1477 after 20 years of construction and was equipped with two-meter-thick walls, loopholes, and powder chambers. From here, control of the city, the Elbe, and the surrounding land was possible. After the destruction of the castle in 1656, an upper floor was removed, and the tower received its current appearance with the Baroque roof turret around 1725. Inside, prison cells were set up on the upper floor, and a lapidarium found its place in the cross-rib vaulted basement.

Opposite the tower is the administrative building from 1708, now referred to as the castle. The elongated brick building with its hip roof currently serves the city administration.

Around the castle once lay the Princely Garden, designed in the style of Roman terraced gardens. After the destruction caused by the hostilities of 1656, the garden, laid out around 1600 by Duke Franz II, was no longer maintained and became overgrown. To this day, the remains of a restored grotto can be found here, and a winding path leads up through the former fortifications. From the terrace directly below the administrative building, one enjoys a wide view over the Elbe as far as Lower Saxony, known as the "Askanierblick".