Burg Windhausen, Medieval castle ruins in Bad Grund, Germany

Burg Windhausen is the ruin of a hilltop castle at 225 m above sea level near Windhausen in the Göttingen district of Lower Saxony. Its trapezoidal 30 × 40 m plateau occupies the western part of a ridge, cut off by an 8 m deep neck ditch. A 30 m long, 1.2 m thick and 6 m high stretch of the ring wall survives in the northwest, and in the east remain the stump of the bergfried, 4.12 m across inside, and a vaulted cellar.

The castle was first mentioned in 1338, when the Lords of Medhem renounced their share in favour of the Lords of Oldershausen, who were also pledge holders. In the 13th and 14th centuries its position near the Grund mines and the Thuringian military road gave it strategic value. In 1365, during a feud between the Duke of Grubenhagen and the Landgrave of Thuringia, it temporarily passed to Mainz. The tower was demolished at the end of the 18th century.

The name Windhausen is documented from 1234 through the local noble family, a branch of the lords of Osterode. The tower stump, ruined at the end of the 18th century, became the burial place of the von Koch family, who had bought the castle in 1642. Around 1900 the castle area was levelled to make a dance floor, producing the two-step terrain visible today.

The ruin sits on a hilltop at 225 m above sea level near Windhausen, separated from the ridge by an 8 m deep neck ditch. The Karstwanderweg, a 233 km long trail from Pölsfeld in Saxony-Anhalt to Förste in Lower Saxony, passes close by. The site is an archaeological monument; the terrain is two-stepped and partly disturbed by later burials.

The castle area was levelled around 1900 to create a dance floor, which produced the two-step terrain visible today. The buildings erected then burned down in 1908. The nearby Karstwanderweg, a 233-kilometre trail from Pölsfeld in Saxony-Anhalt to Förste in Lower Saxony, passes close to the ruin.