Burg Stotel – eine Grafenburg im heutigen Landkreis Cuxhaven und ihre Rolle in der Landesgeschichte Nordwestdeutschlands.

During archaeological excavations in 2013-2015 and 2018, a castle dating from the High Middle Ages was uncovered near Stotel in the district of Cuxhaven which so far remains unique for the region. The fortifications, with a massive stone wall and a gate tower, differ from those found at the many other lowland castles in the Elbe-Weser triangle. The castle can be linked to the social rise of the first Count of Stotel and is closely bound up with the fate of the county concerned. In order to understand the castle, the article looks not only at the findings from the excavations but also at the domain/county of Stotel, including selected castles belonging to vassals of the Count of Stotel. A brief consideration of the castle of the Counts of Oldenburg was equally necessary, as the person who had the stone castle at Stotel built was a very close relative of that prominent family of counts, and the function of the stone castle was undoubtedly also determined by that. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]