History
Dobra Castle was founded in the late 13th century. It was first recorded in a 1295 treaty concerning the division of land between princes Bogislaw IV and Otto I, which mentioned “castrum Doberen cum terra adicente.” At the time, the surrounding estates belonged to the knight Behr of Mecklenburg, but in 1308, Prince Bogislaw IV granted the settlement of Dobra to the knight Heinrich de Dobere of the Heydebreke family. This occurred shortly before the invasion of the Brandenburgians, who destroyed the recently erected castle. For the next twenty years it lay in ruin.
The reconstruction of the castle was carried out around 1338 by Ulryk of the von Dewitz family, who also made a significant enlargement of the stronghold. In 1348, the cousin of Ulrich Dewitz, Otto from Mecklenburg, was honored by Karl IV with the title of count and bestowed with lands in Mecklenburg. With the death of Otto in 1363, his goods were inherited by Gerhard of Dobra, who in 1397 gave them all in pledge to the princes of Mecklenburg. Probably, the funds from this agreement were to be used to expand the castle in Dobra. Strengthening the castle was necessary because a year later it was invaded and captured by the army of Prince Bogusław VIII of Słupsk. Gerhard recaptured part of the lost stronghold and imprisoned the captured crew of the prince. It is known that he imprison them in the undamaged part of the castle, while the part occupied by the prince was ruined.
Thanks to the extension from the turn of the 14th and 15th century, Dobra has become one of the most impressive knights’ castles in the region. It is known that it could have accommodated about 200 knights at the time, which was the equivalent of Bogusław X’s crew, when in 1478 he took refuge in the castle before Elector Albrecht’s forces. However, in the face of the fall of the castle in Szadzko and the considerable preponderance of Albrecht’s troops, additionally equipped with artillery, prince Bogusław signed the peace agreement in Dobra.
Further transformations of the castle, which gave it a Renaissance character, took place in the 16th century. Their initiator was Jost Dewitz, one of the most enlightened Pomeranian humanists, chancellor of Filip I of Wolgast. Around 1538, the western wing was pulled down and the redevelopment of the gate wing began. Then the southern wing was raised to three storeys and equipped with staircases. From the second quarter of the seventeenth century, the process of the castle’s collapse began. Destroyed by the Swedes at the end of the 18th century, it was abandoned and ruined. In 1808, the then owner ordered to blow some of the walls to get a building material.
Architecture
The castle was built on an irregularly shaped hill, situated amid marshes and swamps, originally characterized by relatively gentle natural slopes. Earthworks were carried out on the northern part of the elevated terrain, creating a steeply sloped mound, on which the oldest ring of fortifications was erected. The eastern part was shaped into a small plateau, which eventually began to function as an outer bailey. Ultimately, the castle core dominated the bailey, rising approximately 7-8 meters above it and 11-12 meters above the rest of the grounds. The bailey itself was elevated approximately 3 meters.
The oldest core of the castle consisted of the western house and a defensive wall, built of bricks on a 3.5-meter-high stone plinth. The entire complex had a roughly square plan, measuring 30 x 37 x 32 x 34 meters. The castle entrance was located on the eastern curtain wall, overlooking the unfortified outer bailey, while the southern wall faced the town. The gate was very simple, unprotected by either a gatehouse or a projection from the wall. The western wing measured 11 x 34.5 meters, approximately one-third of the castle’s total area. The building’s three external façades formed part of the defensive perimeter, so it must have had at least two stories above ground, not counting the attic under the gable roof. Given the modesty of the entire complex, the wall’s height was likely not high, probably no more than 8 meters. A relatively simple and inexpensive undertaking was the construction of a timber wall-walk at the top of the wall, which likely connected the residential building and the gate, above which there may have been a hoarding or an overhang timber porch.
In the late 14th and early 15th centuries the southern and smaller eastern wings were built. An outer perimeter wall was also built at the foot of the hill, at an average distance of 8 meters from the main walls, with a tower measuring 12.5 x 11.7 meters standing in the northwest corner. The tower protruded approximately 1 meter from the face of the northern wall and was embedded in the face of the western wall. The outer perimeter was 1.5 meters thick, while the tower walls were as much as 5 meters thick. The outer wall was over 6 meters high, reaching the end of the angular part of the tower, above which it probably merged into a cylindrical section. The proximity of the tower and the western wing made it possible to connect them with a wooden overhanging gallery, running at a height of 9 meters. Inside the tower, at the very bottom, was a square cell with sides 2.5 meters long, carefully faced with erratic boulders.
The castle was surrounded by a deep moat, simultaneously separating it from the town. Access to the castle likely came from the south, from the town, via a drawbridge over the moat, then through the outer bailey, and from there along a gentle slope and a timber bridge to the outer and inner gates in the castle’s eastern walls. Unusually, the main tower protected neither the access road nor the gate itself, probably due to the protective role of the town itself, which was also surrounded by defensive walls. The castle tower, however, protected the castle’s forecourt, which was most vulnerable to fire and attack.
Current state
Fragments of the perimeter walls, a tower up to a height of approximately 9 meters, and ruins of residential buildings have survived to this day. Almost the entire northern wall and a small section of the western gable wall have survived from the southern wing, while extensive sections of the northern and southern walls, along with corner sections of the western gable wall, have survived from the northern wing. Both buildings feature both Late Gothic elements (windows with curtain arches and ogival window recesses) and Early Modern elements. The inner defensive wall is visible along almost the entire length of the northern section, reaching a height of 5-6 meters. The outer wall has been preserved in the western section to a height no higher than 3 meters above the surrounding terrain.
bibliography:
Leksykon zamków w Polsce, red. L.Kajzer, Warszawa 2003.
Płotkowiak M., Postulates for architectural investigation guidelines, based on a virtual reconstruction of Dobra castle near Nowogard, “Przestrzeń i Forma”, 51/2022.
Radacki Z., Średniowieczne zamki Pomorza Zachodniego, Warszawa 1976.