Lichtenberg Castle (Salzgitter)

Lichtenberg Castle, also called the Heinrichsburg, is a ruined castle dating to the 12th century in the Lichtenberge hills near Salzgitter in the German state of Lower Saxony. The ruins are found south of and above the Salzgitter suburb of Lichtenberg on the steep summit of the Burgberg .The site, which is extremely good from a strategic perspective, shows the ideal type of ground plan of a hill castle from the High Middle Ages. The builder of the most important fortifications of the Welf dynasty was Duke Henry the Lion. The castle was built to counter the Bishopric of Hildesheim and its Hohenstaufen neighbour in Goslar. In spite of numerous conflicts of those times it was not destroyed until 1552 by the cannons of a mercenary army.Layout of the castleThe castle comprises an upper and lower wards. The upper ward lies on an oval plateau, 45 x 80 metres in area. Here there are various residential and domestic buildings, towers and the castle well, surrounded by a 1.6 metre thick enceinte. In a residential building measuring 10 x 8.5 metres is a ladies' apartment (Kemenate) an old hot air heating system was uncovered during excavations. A little below the inner ward there is a 32 x 8 metre palas, with its great hall, as well as a neighbouring tower and dungeon.