The Slavic Castle
This reconstructed Slavic hill fort is in Raddusch
Images: Hamsterkiste
1 - Almost 1,000 years ago, the Arab scholar Abraham ben Jacob travelled through the lands of the north on behalf of the Caliph of Cordoba. He also visited the area between the Elbe and the Oder. A people had settled there whom we now call the “Slavs”. They lived very differently from what the scholar, who came from southern Spain, was used to. Near their settlements, they built forts protected by high walls made of wooden posts.
2 - Abraham ben Jacob reported: This is how the Slavs build most of their fortresses: They go to meadows rich in water and undergrowth, mark out a circular or square area according to the fortress’s shape and size, ... dig all around it and pile up the excavated earth, reinforcing it with planks and stakes ... until the wall reaches the intended height. They also measure out a gate for the fortress on whichever side they choose, and people come and go over a wooden bridge.
3 - About 700 sites are known in Germany where castles like these once stood. But only a few traces remain. A few years ago, a Slavic castle was rebuilt near the village of Raddusch in Brandenburg. It stands once again on the site where a castle was first built around 880 AD.
4 - The structure consisted of a wooden framework. Thick logs were joined together as in a log cabin. The inside was filled with sand, soil and clay, creating a circular rampart 10 m wide. It was about 7 m high and enclosed an area about 35 m in diameter.
5 - Inside were wooden wells up to 14 m deep. A moat filled with water ran around the rampart. You entered the castle through two gates, which faced each other.
6 - A settlement lay outside the castle. When attackers approached, people fled into the castle grounds. But it offered people real protection for only about 180 years. In 963, the castle was conquered and destroyed by the German Margrave Gero. The castle ruins fell into decay. When reconstruction began more than 1,000 years later, all that remained was a 3-meter-high mound.
Images: Hamsterkiste