HARZBURG, or Neustadt-Harzburg, the chief town of an office in the Brunswick circle of Wolfenbüttel, Prussia, is situated 727 feet above sea-level on the right bank of the Radau, a tributary of the Ocker, and at the terminus of the Brunswick-Harzburg Railway, 5 miles E.S.E. from Goslar and 18 miles S. from Wolfenbüttel. The opening of the railway has made the Harzburg route a principal one for persons visiting the Harz, and the town is also much frequented as a summer residence. It possesses a saltwater bath and also a hydropathic establishment. A mile and a half south from the town lies the Burgberg, 1500 feet above sea-level, on whose summit, according to tradition, there was at one time an altar to the heathen idol Krodo, still to be seen in the Ulrich chapel at Goslar. There are now on the summit of the hill a hotel, the remains of an old castle, and a monument erected in 1875 to the honour of Prince Bismarck, with an inscription taken from one of his speeches against the Ultramontane claims of Rome— “Nach Canossa gehen wir nicht.” The population of Harzburg in 1875, including the villages of Bündheim, Schulenrode, and Schlewecke, was 4271.

The castle was built by the emperor Henry IV. between 1065 and 1069, but was laid in ruins by the Saxons about 1080. By Frederick I. it was granted to Henry the Lion, who caused it to be rebuilt with great splendour about 1180. It was a frequent residence of Otto IV., who died at it, and by his will granted it to the counts of Woldenberg. After being frequently besieged and taken, it finally, after the battle of Mühlberg in 1546, passed to the house of Brunswick. It ceased to be of importance as a fortress after the Thirty Years’ War, and gradually fell into ruins....