Stamp point 80 / Regenstein castle ruins

Regenstein Castle and Fortress (293 m above sea level) was built on a sandstone rock north of Blankenburg and is a striking feature in the landscape of the Vorharz.

The cast­le beca­me famous abo­ve all through Count Albrecht II von Regen­stein (1310–1349), who fre­quent­ly had dis­pu­tes with the rulers of the sur­roun­ding towns, the Bishop of Hal­ber­stadt and the Abbess of Qued­lin­burg in the 1330s. The­se sto­ries were roman­ti­ci­zed in the novel „The Rob­ber Count“ by Juli­us Wolff. In the 15th cen­tu­ry, the Regen­stein fami­ly of counts moved to Blan­ken­burg Cast­le. The cast­le fell into dis­re­pair and beca­me a ruin. 

The medieval cast­le com­plex was expan­ded into a fort­ress by Prus­sia from 1671. In 1736, light­ning struck the pow­der tower and sever­ely dama­ged the fort­ress. In 1757, the French con­que­r­ed the Regen­stein. The Prus­si­ans recap­tu­red it just five months later on Febru­ary 12, 1758 and ren­de­red the faci­li­ty unusable. The gun­pow­der store, which was loca­ted rela­tively high up, was blown up in the pro­cess. All that remains of the fort­ress are the case­ma­tes, the rock­work and the res­to­red ent­rance gate. Cha­rac­te­ristic are the many cave-like rooms car­ved into the rock, which today house an exhi­bi­ti­on of archaeo­lo­gi­cal finds from the cast­le area. Even the hor­se sta­bles were car­ved into the rock. 

Johann Wolf­gang von Goe­the visi­ted the Regen­stein tog­e­ther with the pain­ter Georg Mel­chi­or Kraus on Sep­tem­ber 11, 1784 on his third trip to the Harz Moun­ta­ins to con­duct geo­lo­gi­cal stu­dies. Two dra­wings and a rock sam­ple in Goe­the’s rock coll­ec­tion com­me­mo­ra­te this visit. 

The Regen­stein is one of the most inte­res­t­ing cast­les in the Harz Moun­ta­ins. Con­quering the sand­stone rock is an impres­si­ve expe­ri­ence. In addi­ti­on to breath­ta­king pan­o­r­amic views, even the youn­gest visi­tors will mar­vel at the struc­tu­re car­ved into the rock. 

The start­ing point for a visit is the sign­pos­ted par­king lot below the cast­le, which is easi­ly acces­si­ble from the A36. It is a good idea to first walk along the nar­row, sign­pos­ted path to the left of the par­king lot to the Regen­stein­müh­le HWN 82 and the Sand­höh­len im Heers HWN 81. From the sand caves, seve­ral sign­pos­ted paths lead up to the castle.