Stapelburg

Stapelburg is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the Nordharz municipality.GeographyIt is located at the northern foot of the Harz mountain range and Harz National Park, about 4km north of the town of Ilsenburg. The small Ecker river in the west, a tributary of the Oker, forms the border with the town of Bad Harzburg in Lower Saxony.The settlement has access to the Bundesstraße 6 federal highway running from the Bundesautobahn 395 near Goslar to Halle and the Bundesautobahn 14. Stapelburg station is served by the Vienenburg-Halberstadt railway line.HistoryStapelburg Castle was first mentioned in a 1306 deed as a property of the Counts of Wernigerode; it was meant to protect and control the trade route to the Imperial City of Goslar near the border with the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Prior to that an Imperial castle, mentioned as Ahlsburg in the 14th century, was erected a few kilometres south-southwest in the Harz mountains on a spur high above the Ecker valley.