Stapelburg Castle

The Stapelburg is a ruined mediæeval castle built to guard the road on the northern edge of the Harz mountains at Stapelburg in the district of Harz in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The Stapelburg was built before 1306 by the Counts of Wernigerode to guard the military road that connected the counts' main ancestral castle with the imperial and mining town of Goslar. It also acted as a toll station. The castle was enfeoffed several times and in 1394 came into the possession of the Diocese of Halberstadt for a sum of 600 marks. On 25 January 1432, Count Botho of Stolberg accepted Stapelburg Castle and its estate from Bishop John of Halberstadt as a pledge, after it should have been previously enfeoffed to the last Wernigerode count who had died in 1429. But Stapelburg was redeemed again by the Diocese of Halberstadt and pledged to Heinrich von Bila, who was the last vassal before Stapelburg was enfeoffed by Bishop Gebhard von Halberstadt on 4 June 1463 for 200 Rhenish guilders to Count Henry the Elder of Stolberg for the duration of his life - that is until 1511. During his final years the castle fell somewhat into ruin. On 13 April 1509 the aging Count Botho and his son committed to the administrator of the Bishopric of Halberstadt, Archbishop Ernest of Magdeburg, to rebuild the dilapidated castle within eight years, so that a nobleman or steward could have his seat there. As a result the count of Stolberg and his son were enfeoffed with the Stapelburg.

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