Dreibergen and Elmendorf Castle @museum.de

F: Dreibergen – Three Hills – is a name with a fairy tale air to it, suggestive of derring do in olden times!

And by the standards of northern Germany, the three hummocks may indeed rate as "hills". Though in fact, they're man-made, no more than seven metres high, and were raised as castle mounds. It's where the Knights of Elmendorf once lived.

M: So there's a hint of adventure in the olden days after all!

The three hills jointly formed a castle complex, and each had a precisely defined purpose. The main one was the mound closest to the lake with its 12-sided keep, where the lord and his family lived. A little farther back was hill number two with a smaller keep, while the outer bailey with farm buildings and servant accommodation stood on the one nearest the road.

F: The three hills were linked by drawbridges and surrounded by a system of moats. And that seems to have been essential, because an earlier noble seat from the 9th century was destroyed. The mounds were raised in the mid-12th century and the complex expanded. The site where the castle stood was actually of strategic importance. At issue was not so much its proximity to the lake as the military road that led via Apen and Detern on to Leer and Emden.

M: The hills may not be real hills, and even the castle complex was probably not much more than a few timber-framed houses surrounded by wooden palisades. But historians nevertheless confirm that medieval Elmendorf Castle was a centre of power in the vicinity of the Zwischenahner Meer.