Mecklenburg Castle was a medieval castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 and a residential capital of the Nakonid and Nikloting dynasties of the Obotrites

Obotrites

The Obotrites , also commonly known as the Obodrites, Abotrites, or Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany . For decades they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against Germanic Saxons and Slavic...

. It was located just south of the modern village Dorf Mecklenburg

Dorf Mecklenburg

Dorf Mecklenburg is a municipality in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany....

, seven kilometres south of the Bay of Wismar

Bay of Wismar

The Bay of Wismar or more commonly Wismar Bay or Wismarbucht is a well sheltered multi-sectioned bay in the southwestern Baltic Sea, in Germanys' Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and is considered the south-central part of the much larger arm of the Baltic known as the Mecklenburg Bay — a long fingerlike...

 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The only remnants of the ruined

Ruins

Ruins are the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete, as time went by, have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction...

 castle are parts of an earthen wall. Some scholars have associated Mecklenburg with the medieval trading emporium Reric

Reric

Reric or Rerik was one of the Viking Age multi-ethnic Slavic-Scandinavian emporia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, located near Wismar in the present-day German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Reric was built around 700, when Slavs of the Obodrite tribe settled the region...

.

Etymology

The travelling merchant Ibrahim Ibn Jacub described Mecklenburg as “Nakon’s Castle” in 965. By 995 it was documented as Michelenburg or Mikelenburg, meaning large castle in Low German

Low German

Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...

. In Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, it was known as Magnopolis. The later duchy and region of Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...

 derives its name from the castle. The probable Slavic

Polabian language

The Polabian language is an extinct West Slavic language that was spoken by the Polabian Slavs in present-day North-Eastern Germany around the Elbe river, from which derives its name...

 name, Veligrad also (“great” or “large castle”). was commemorated in a new Schloss Weligrad built between 1896 and 1898 for Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg

Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg

Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg was a member of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin who served as the regent of two states of the German Empire...

.

History

Excavations indicate that the first castle of Mecklenburg was built in the 7th or 8th century in a lowland at the tip of a lakeland peninsula. It was possibly the Obotrite residence of Reric

Reric

Reric or Rerik was one of the Viking Age multi-ethnic Slavic-Scandinavian emporia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, located near Wismar in the present-day German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Reric was built around 700, when Slavs of the Obodrite tribe settled the region...

, destroyed in 808. If associated with Reric, merchants were at the castle by the beginning of the 9th century. Significant market traffic would have developed in the 10th century.; a number of silver artifacts have been found in the vicinity of the ruins.

The castle of Mecklenburg became a seat of Obotrite princes by the 10th century at the latest. It lay on a route from Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 to Wolin

Wolin

Wolin is the name both of an island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast, and a town on that island. It is separated from the island of Usedom by the Świna river, and from mainland Pomerania by the Dziwna river...

, assuring the castle importance as an economic and political center. The powerful Obotrite prince resided in the castle by 965.

The castle flourished as the residence of the Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 prince Gottschalk (ruled 1043-1066) and the seat of the Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 bishop John of Mecklenburg; the castle contained churches and three monasteries by 1066. During a widespread pagan

Slavic mythology

Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....

 rebellion later that year, Gottschalk was killed and his family fled from Mecklenburg Castle. The head of Bishop John was displayed at the pagan center of Rethra.

Henry

Henry (Obotrite prince)

Henry was an Obotrite prince or king from the Nakonid dynasty; he was regarded by contemporaries as "King of the Slavs"...

, a younger son of Gottschalk, avenged his father’s death by killing the pagan usurper Kruto

Kruto

Kruto , son of Grin or Grinus, was a prince of Wagria. James Westfall Thompson believed his family belonged to the Rani of Rugia....

 in 1093. However, he chose as his residence Liubice

Liubice

Liubice, also known by the German name Alt-Lübeck , was a medieval West Slavic settlement near the site of modern Lübeck, Germany. Liubice was located at the confluence of the Schwartau with the Trave across from Teerhof Island, approximately four kilometres north of Lübeck's island old town...

, which was near the borders of the Wagri

Wagri

The Wagri, Wagiri, or Wagrians were a tribe of Polabian Slavs inhabiting Wagria, or eastern Holstein in northern Germany, from the ninth to twelfth centuries. They were a constituent tribe of the Obodrite confederacy....

ans, Polabians

Polabians (tribe)

The Polabians were a constituent Lechitic tribe of the Obotrites who lived between the Trave and the Elbe. The main settlement of the Polabians was Racisburg , named after their Prince Ratibor...

, and Obotrites, instead of Mecklenburg Castle, which was in the heart of the Obotrite territory. The castle also began to lose its prominence as the Kingdom of Germany

Kingdom of Germany

The Kingdom of Germany developed out of the eastern half of the former Carolingian Empire....

 began expanding eastward

Ostsiedlung

Ostsiedlung , also called German eastward expansion, was the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day western and central Germany into less-populated regions and countries of eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia...

.

As part of Duke Henry the Lion

Henry the Lion

Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....

 of Saxony

Duchy of Saxony

The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...

’s expansionary goals, the Archbishop of Bremen placed a bishop named Emmehard at Mecklenburg in 1149, as the bishopric had been vacant since 1066. In 1160 King Valdemar the Great

Valdemar I of Denmark

Valdemar I of Denmark , also known as Valdemar the Great, was King of Denmark from 1157 until 1182.-Biography:...

 of Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 and Henry the Lion campaigned against the Obotrite prince, Niklot

Niklot

Niklot or Nyklot was a pagan chief or prince of the Slavic Obotrites and an ancestor of the House of Mecklenburg. From 1130 or 1131 until his death he was chief of the Obotrite confederacy, the Kissini, and the Circipani. At the same time he was Lord of Schwerin, Quetzin, and Malchow...

, who burned his castles at Ilow

Ilów

Iłów is a village in Sochaczew County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Iłów. It lies approximately north-west of Sochaczew and west of Warsaw....

, Mecklenburg, Schwerin

Schwerin

Schwerin is the capital and second-largest city of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The population, as of end of 2009, was 95,041.-History:...

, and Dobin in order to avoid being pinned down in sieges. Niklot was ultimately killed at Werle during the campaign, however, and the Obotrite territory was partitioned between Saxon ministeriales; Mecklenburg Castle passed to Count Heinrich von Schaten. The Bishopric of Mecklenburg was replaced by the Bishopric of Schwerin in the same year.

Niklot’s son Pribislav

Pribislav of Mecklenburg

Pribislav was an Obotrite prince and the first Prince of Mecklenburg .Pribislav was one of three sons of the Obotrite chieftain Niklot, who was killed in 1160 during a joint campaign by Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and King Valdemar the Great of Denmark...

 led a Slavic rebellion in 1163 against Henry the Lion and the German lords occupying Obotrite castles. Although Pribislav sacked Mecklenburg in 1164, the rebellion was eventually defeated at the Battle of Verchen

Battle of Verchen

The Battle of Verchen was a battle between Saxons and West Slavic Obotrites on 6 July 1164.The Obotrites were attacked by Saxons and Danes in 1160, resulting in the death of the Obotrite prince, Niklot, and the partition of the Obotrite lands...

 later that year. In need of an ally against the Saxon nobility three years later, Henry allowed Pribislav to receive his father’s Niklot’s inheritance and became the Prince of Mecklenburg, Kessin

Kessin

Kessin is a village and a former municipality in the district of Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Since 7 June 2009, it is part of the municipality Dummerstorf....

, and Rostock

Rostock

Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...

.

Market traffic was documented at Mecklenburg in 1168, although most of the trade was passing to Schwerin. In 1265, the castle was torn down to provide building material for the construction of a palace in the growing city of Wismar

Wismar

Wismar , is a small port and Hanseatic League town in northern Germany on the Baltic Sea, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,about 45 km due east of Lübeck, and 30 km due north of Schwerin. Its natural harbour, located in the Bay of Wismar is well-protected by a promontory. The...

. Although the princes in Schwerin rebuilt the castle at Mecklenburg in 1277 for use as a staging point for raids, it was demolished 45 years later.

The modern village of Mecklenburg developed from a mid-14th century settlement near the castle. After the cursory removal of the ruins, the rampart was used for agriculture. Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch, active from 1839-41, was the first to begin surveying the ruins. The wall was established as a memorial in 1854 by Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, while reforestation with oak trees began two years later. From 1967-71, Prof. Dr. Donat of the Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR led extensive excavations into a 52 m section of the southern wall and an area of 1,175 m² near the ruins. The diameter of the oval inner court reached 95 to 140 metres, while the ramparts rose 10 metres.The street, “Am Burgwall”, leads to the still visible remnants of the castle’s rampart; the area has been used a cemetery since 1870.