Bad Harzburg - Sights

Sights

  • The Harzburg castle was finally slighted in 1650 by order of Duke Augustus the Younger, so that only its ruins remain today. A scenic overlook on its western perimeter offers a panoramic view of the North German Plain. This viewing point is dominated by the 19 m (62 ft) tall Canossa Column (Canossasäule) erected in 1877 in remembrance of both the Walk to Canossa by Emperor Henry IV in 1077 and a famous expression by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck during his Kulturkampf conflict with the Roman Catholic Church "We will not go to Canossa" ("Nach Canossa gehen wir nicht"). The Burgberg Cable Car has linked town and hilltop since 1929.
  • Bündheim Castle (Bündheimer Schloss) was the seat of the Amtmann (bailiff or vogt) of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. It was erected in 1685 under the rule of Duke Rudolph Augustus on the site of a former manor house, built in 1573, that had been destroyed during the Thirty Years' War. The castled replaced the Harzburg as the headquarters of the local government, it was constructed with stones of the slighted castle.
  • Near Bündheim Castle are the stables of Bad Harzburg's stud farm, one of Europe's oldest, established in 1413 by the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The adjacent racecourse is the site of the annual Harzburg Race Week (Harzburger Rennwoche).
  • The Pump Room (Wandelhalle) is the historic centre of the spa resort. Built in 1898 on the site of the former saline well, the hall today is used for recitals and lectures. On the other side of the Badepark stands the former bathhouse (Badehaus), which now houses a casino (Spielbank).
  • The Lutheran parish church (Lutherkirche) of 1903 has paintings by Brunswick court painter, Adolf Quensen, and a Sauer pipe organ.
  • East of Bad Harzburg stands the Cross of the German East (Kreuz des deutschen Ostens), an Ostlandkreuz, in remembrance of the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe after World War II. Erected in 2000 at an elevation of 555 m (1,821 ft) on the Uhlenklippen hill, the 18 m (59 ft) high cross replaces an earlier one from 1950, which was destroyed by a storm.
  • The Sachsenbrunnen, a medieval spring in the nearby woods and source of drinking water for the castle of Harzburg.

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Famous quotes containing the word sights:

    “O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown,
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    What sights of ugly death within my eyes!”
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