Germany · Restored
Falkenstein Castle
Burg Falkenstein
Falkenstein Castle (Burg Falkenstein) is a hill castle in the Harz mountains of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, originally built in the High Middle Ages and later altered in the Gothic and early modern periods. The site occupies a rocky outcrop above the Selke valley and today houses a museum and event spaces.
First raised
1120
Its prime
1150
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1150
What Falkenstein Castle looked like in its prime.
Perched on a rocky crag above the Selke valley, the castle presents a compact complex of rough brown-grey fieldstone curtain walls and terraced outer walls. A massive cylindrical bergfried with very thick lower walls rises from the inner bailey and is topped by a bulbous/helmeted cap and observation gallery. Attached to the curtain on one side is a multi-storey timber-framed palas with steep slate roofs and jettied upper floors; multiple gates, zwingers and a high shield wall protect the approach.
Its story
The story of Falkenstein Castle.
Falkenstein was built between 1120 and 1150 by the lords of the Konradsburg, who henceforth styled themselves Counts of Falkenstein. Legend gives the castle a darker origin: around 1080 the Saxon nobleman Egeno II of Konradsburg slew Count Adalbert II of Ballenstedt in a fight, and the murderer was allegedly made to give up his family seat to be converted into a monastery.
The Romanesque castle was protected by seven gates and five zwingers, with a 17-metre-high shield wall on the side where the main attacks were anticipated. At the centre of the inner bailey stands the 31-metre bergfried, its walls 8.5 metres thick; a wooden bridge originally connected it, some nine metres above the ground, to the palas in the northwest corner.
In 1437 the Bishopric of Halberstadt gave the castle as a fief to the House of Asseburg, in whose hands it remained until its confiscation after the Second World War. Though modified frequently, notably in the mid-16th century, it retains the character of a medieval castle and today houses a museum, its bergfried open to the public as an observation tower.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1150.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Falkenstein Castle, including 1 interior: summit and observation gallery of the bergfried. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Falkenstein Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1150, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Castle Siege
Play Castle Siege at Falkenstein Castle.
A strategy game played on Falkenstein Castle’s real ground plan: the same surveyed walls shown in the archive below. Post your finite garrison on the battlements between assaults, then hold out as rams, siege towers, trebuchets and sappers arrive in ever-worse waves.
Sign in free to see the garrison muster. One castle costs 150 Clan Coins and is yours forever.
Sign in to take command →Whose castle
Clans who held Falkenstein Castle.
The families that held Falkenstein Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Falkenstein
Built 1120–1150 by the lords of the Konradsburg, who thereafter styled themselves Counts of Falkenstein.
Asseburg
Held by the House of Asseburg as a fief of Halberstadt from 1437 until confiscation after the Second World War.
From the archive
Falkenstein Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
Fig. 351 Falkenstein
1912 · Otto Piper, Burgenkunde (1912)
Public domain
Fig. 352 Desgleichen
1912 · Otto Piper, Burgenkunde (1912)
Public domain
