Ahlsburg 1.37

The Ahlsburg or Alerdestein was an Imperial castle near Stapelburg in the present-day Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.LocationThe site of the former Ahlsburg is located about 4.5km south-southwest of Stapelburg and 4km north-northeast of the Ecker Dam, on the northern edge of the Harz mountain range. It is situated on the eastern bank of the Ecker River, a south-eastern tributary of the Oker that forms the state border with Lower Saxony to the west. The castle stood above a narrow section of the valley, where a footbridge crossed the Ecker, on a spur with steep granite crags.HistoryA Saxon noble Alardus of Burgdorf is mentioned as a witness, when in 1218 Emperor Otto IV made his will at nearby Harzburg Castle. Alardus' ancestors had been vested with estates around the former Werla Kaiserpfalz in the 12th century and probably erected the castle where the Ecker River formed the border of the County of Wernigerode with the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.