The best city hikes and walks around Gipskarstlandschaft bei Ührde

Market square, sometimes very crowded. But delicious ice cream 🍨

Restaurant Ratskeller Martin-Luther-Platz 2, 37520 Osterode am Harz

On a city tour you will learn everything about the city wall and the significance of the many towers

Not much of the castle has been preserved, but the tower stump is well lit in the evenings and can be seen from far above the district.

Benches invite you to linger here. There is a weekly market.

The old castle on the mountain spur between the Sösetal and Lerbachtal secured the ascent into the Harz Mountains. By 1100 AD, Osterode was already a "flourishing place". We can see this from the chronicle of the St. Peter's Monastery in Erfurt, which mentions the destruction of the "villa opulentissima" in the dispute between Henry the Lion and Margrave Albert the Bear in 1152. The castle was already standing at this time, and the remains of it remain one of the town's landmarks. It protected the first market settlement, which existed safely from the unpredictable Söse River, on the hill of today's Rollberg. Until 1486, the castle was the widow's residence of Duchess ELISABETH of Brunswick-Grubenhagen. In 1512, the castle was no longer inhabited; it was probably abandoned due to the threat of collapse as a result of the building ground giving way. With its 3.5-meter-thick walls, it had five floors. The preserved half-cylinder of the Romanesque residential tower, with a lower diameter of approx. 15 m and a remaining height of approx. 35 m, is one of the largest keep castles in Central Europe. Only a small part of the keep of the Old Castle has been preserved, and only the foundation walls of the other castle buildings. After extensive renovation, the tower ruins now tower over the beautiful town of Osterode am Harz. https://www.goettingerland.de/de/poi/historische-staette/alte-burg/50966953/

The idyllic half-timbered town of Osterode is located in the Harz Mountains between the Sösetalsperre, the South Harz Karst Mountains, the sunny Lerbach Valley and directly at the entrance to the Harzer-Hexen-Stieg. History lives between the old city walls of the town. In the idyllic old town there are numerous old half-timbered houses lined up next to each other. The ruins of the old Welfenburg and the St. Aegidien Church rise above the town. Every Tuesday and Saturday morning there is a weekly market on the Kornmarkt. Small cafes, restaurants and shops offer an opportunity to linger. The town in the sunny South Harz Mountains offers a high recreational value as a starting point for exploring the Harz National Park. https://www.osterode.de/portal/seiten/freizeit-tourismus-osterode-am-harz-912000807-21351.html

City walls were medieval fortifications that were common around every large settlement in Europe at the time. Not only cities, but also market towns and larger villages tried to protect themselves from uninvited visitors in this way. The massive bulwark around Osterode was first mentioned in 1233, more than half a century before the town was even granted city rights. The wall around the historic town center of Osterode was completed around 1330. At that time, the bulwark was around 1700 meters long. It was built from locally available building materials such as pebbles and gypsum mortar. A total of four gates provided access to the protected urban area. In addition to these structures, around ten towers were added to monitor the area in front of the settlement. Despite this extensive demolition work in the past, large parts of the medieval city fortifications of Osterode have still been preserved to this day. In addition to the remains of the actual city wall, some impressive towers have also survived the times. https://www.harzlife.de/harzrand/osterode-stadtmauer.html