Eisenhardt Castle

High above Bad Belzig stands the more than 1,000-year-old Eisenhardt Castle, which marks the beginning of the castle tour. The well-preserved fortress now houses, among other things, a farm shop with a café and a hotel. When you visit the castle, you will also reach the 28-meter-high keep, from which you can enjoy a phenomenal view of Bad Belzig and the surrounding landscape.

I will stay here on my next bike tour, I really liked the restaurant and the beautifully restored square.

Belzig was first documented in 997 as Burgward. In the area of ​​the castle there should have been a hilltop settlement of the late Bronze or the Iron Age. North of this hilltop settlement is the Slavic castle wall burgwardium belizi from the 9th to 11th century, which was probably the center of the Slavic Gaul Ploni and was part of the settlement area of ​​the Heveller suspected. This castle wall transferred in the year 997 emperor Otto III. the archdiocese Magdeburg. However, since there had already been an uprising of the Slavs in 983, in which most areas east of the Elbe fell back the hands of pagan Slavs, no control over the areas in the east and thus was not exercised over Belzig and the surrounding area. This condition existed nearly 200 years, until 1157 Albrecht the bear Brandenburg could recapture. After centuries of clashes so the castle wall came in the 12th century, first in the possession of the Ascanians. 1161 Burgward was subordinated to the diocese of the diocese of Brandenburg. Forty years later, a Count von Belzig was first mentioned. He came from the family of Baderiche. Count Siegfried von Belzig first built a massive Romanesque stone castle. With the death of the last Count of Belzig after 1251, the castle and the surrounding area fell to the Duchy of Saxony. 1269 was the first time a market settlement, a so-called oppidum Belzig, mentioned in a document. From this developed the later city. The castle itself formed a Gutsbezirk and belonged to the municipality Sandberg, which was not incorporated until 1914 to Belzig.

Source:
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Eisenhardt