Werburg Castle

The manor house existing today is a single-wing structure with a stone ground floor and a half-timbered upper floor. The original building from the 15th century was extensively renovated at the beginning of the 17th century, probably in 1612/14, whereby the building was extended and the half-timbered upper floor was created. In the 18th century, minor alterations were made, including the baroque entrance portal and the half-hipped gables of the roof.

The equally single-wing gatehouse is a rather high-quality stone building in the forms of the Weser Renaissance, dated by inscription to 1596.

The half-timbered farm building, extensively renewed during the last renovation, dates from the 19th century. A pigsty from the early 20th century complements the ensemble. A larger farm building, probably designed in the style of a Low German hall house, was still present around 1800 but no longer exists today.

The Werburg gatehouse was extensively renovated in 2005/06 and has since been used as a wedding room and archive for the city of Spenge.

Since 2007, the manor house of the ensemble has been undergoing renovation, having until then preserved the condition of the 18th/19th century in an exceptionally untouched state. The complex is to be preserved as an attractive excursion destination and serve as a cultural community center for the city of Spenge. The manor house will be central, housing a children's museum that offers supplementary programs as an extracurricular learning place for science, social studies, and history lessons.

The large barn serves as a space for art exhibitions, workshops, and seminars and can be used for family celebrations. A modern toilet facility and a small kitchen have been installed in the former pigsty.

The preservation and renovation measures were accompanied by a total of eight campaigns of architectural-historical and archaeological investigations, which also provided clues about the original buildings. According to these, the original manor house, built around 1450, was directly connected to a surrounding castle wall. This wall was 1.2 m thick at the foundation and founded on oak piles that had been felled in 1574. Around this wall ran a water-filled moat, which enclosed a smaller area inside than the outer moat laid out around 1597, which is still visible today as water-bearing in the terrain. In the south of the original complex, a small bastion was archaeologically proven, which is no longer visible above ground today. It is likely to be the western part of a gatehouse from the mid-15th century.

During construction-accompanying investigations in the manor house, ammunition supplies from the Renaissance period were found: a store of approx. 1600 iron crossbow bolts and 54 cannonballs (four iron, 50 stone) of 8 to 12 cm diameter, now rusted together into a large lump of iron.