Station: [02] Introduction to Starigard/Oldenburg

Starigard/Oldenburg, Royal palace and bishop’s see at the boundary to the Slavic world‘, is the title of the exhibition in this room.
It shows you where the people, who later called themselves ‚Slavs’, actually originated from, why they chose a hill right in the middle of present-day Oldenburg as their place of settlement and how they developed this hill during the early Middle Ages to a residence for their princes. The aerial photograph taken in 1908 shows the respective hill, the Oldenburg ring fort.

The settlement was referred to in mediaeval sources as the ‚Old Castle‘ (‚Antiqua Civitas‘), or in Slav language, ‚Starigard‘, whereby the word old refers more to the meaning of patriarchal.

The Prince of Starigard partially ruled over the entire north-west Slavic tribe of Abrodites, exercising all the power and pomp this office brings with it.

On account of the excellent location of the castle for the entire eastern Holstein, it was also a base for Christian missionary work and a bishop’s see.

Our tour through the exhibition starts on the left, at the model of Oldenburg.