Contact Admin. Great Blankenburg Castle German: Nearby is the Little Castle with its baroque garden, tea house and museum, the town wall , the pheasant garden, the castle park and the castle pond.
In Poppo , from the Frankish noble family of Reginbodonen , was given the county as a fief. His sons shared the county: In the castle and town of Blankenburg were besieged, under the direction of Bishop Dietrich of Halberstadt, by imperial armies. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa took over the reins of power. In Blankenburg was captured and eventually handed over for plundering. The brothers, Henry and Siegfried II went into captivity, but were given the county back again after peace was re-established.
The castle was rebuilt and greatly extended. In Count Henry took over the "agreed" estates of Regenstein and Siegfried II retained the County of Blankenburg, his descendants keeping possession of Blankenburg until In , according to legend, the Blankenburg was supposed to have been secretly looted in the night by Dietrich of Wernigerode, while Count Busso was absent. There is a carved head in the castle wall that recalls this raid.
Around Count Ulrich XI, despite serious debts, had the east wing knocked down and a palace-like building constructed. On 19 November a fire broke out at night before the new building had been occupied, which destroyed large parts of the old castle.
According to legend, the fire was start with dry kindling by the castle firelighter under the stairs of the old castle, after baptists had paid him with gold. The sleeping residents noticed the fire too late. The maids and servants fled onto the rooftops and out of the windows and down the walls, but forgot their masters. The younger children were dropped out of the windows by their nurses wrapped in blankets.
