Burg Stendal

The Burg Stendal once stood where the Stendaler Dom now rises in the town of Stendal. It was built to guard key roads and the Elbe crossing near Tangermünde, probably in the 10th century. By the mid-12th century the burggraf was already recorded, though the first stone church inside its walls appeared only in 1188.

The castle’s size can be judged from the fact that a stift church could be built within its ramparts. Markgraf Otto II is named as one of its owners. By 1215 the burggraf still held office, yet the town had slipped from his legal control. The walls were likely removed late in the 13th century when the town’s own defences were strengthened.

No visible traces of the old fortress remain today. Visitors to the Stendaler Dom stand on the spot where the church was first raised inside the vanished walls. The present building’s foundations still echo the scale of the former stronghold.