Burg Esbeck

Burg Esbeck stands in the municipality of Schöningen, Germany; its earliest documentary trace is medieval and the original builder is not named in the record.

The site enters written history in the early 1260s. Ludolf von Esbeck had acquired the place in 1260, and in 1263 the Bishop of Halberstadt granted the castle as a fief to Margrave Johann von Brandenburg. By 1322 the castle was in the hands of Duke Otto the Mild.

During the mid-fourteenth century Duke Magnus I used the castle as a pledgeable asset, recording many pawnings between 1346 and 1368. Named recipients of these pledges included Günzel von Bartensleben, the brothers Paridam and Iwan von dem Knesebeck, and members of the von der Asseburg family. In 1371 Duke Magnus I gave the town of Braunschweig the legal right to demolish Burg Esbeck, but the structure survived that grant and continued to be transferred among nobles.

From 1454 until 1838 the property was held as a fief by the Herren von Hoym. Substantial changes to the appearance of the manor date to the sixteenth century, which produced much of the layout seen later. A major fire in 1689 led to rebuilding of the manor house; the ground-floor plinth from the earlier building was retained and the reconstruction created an east-facing show front with a central projecting bay and a low gable. After another conflagration in 1869 the residential ranges were renewed and the east wing was altered to include a new stair giving access to the courtyard. In 1906 architectural elements taken from the demolished Schloss Neu‑Richmond in Braunschweig were added to the house, among them an octagonal turret that now dominates the principal facade.