Altencelle is part of the borough of

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

and lies southeast of the town centre, west of the

River Aller The River Aller is a small river on Exmoor in Somerset, England. It rises as several small streams around Tivington and Huntscott and flows through the Holnicote Estate passing Holnicote and through Allerford, where it passes under a packhor ...

and east of the

Fuhse The Fuhse is a river of Lower Saxony, Germany, a left tributary of the Aller. Spelled Fuse in maps of the 19th century and earlier, the name is thought to derive from the ancient Fosa flumen, after which the Germanic tribe of the Fosi took thei ...

. It is linked to Celle by the B 214 federal road and state highway K 74.

History

The present day name of Altencelle clearly shows that the original town of Celle (granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

since 1249), "old Celle" or ''alte Celle'', was located here. The village was first mentioned in the records in 986 as Kellu ("settlement by the river"). At that time there was a castle (''Burg'') there belonging to the

Brunonen The Brunonids (or Brunonians, german: Brunonen, la, Brunones, i.e. "Brunos") were a Saxon noble family in the 10th and 11th centuries, who owned property in Eastphalia (around Brunswick) and Frisia. The Brunonids are assumed to be descendants ...

family. Today, like the ''

Ringwall von Burg The circular rampart of Burg (German: ''Ringwall von Burg'') is a defensive work from the Early Middle Ages period located near the German town of Celle in Lower Saxony. The site, dating roughly to the 10th century and located in an inaccessible a ...

'' in the suburb of Burg, only archaeological evidence remains. Duke Otto the Strict left Altencelle in 1292 and founded the "new" Celle about northwest near another existing castle.

Politics

The chairman of the village council (''Ortsbürgermeister'') is Otto Stumpf (CDU).

Culture and places of interest

* The origins of Saint Gertrude's Church (the ''Gertrudenkirche'') go back to about 1000 and it is one of the oldest church buildings in the region of Celle. The present building dates mainly to the 14th century. * The ''

'' ("ring embankment of the castle") at Burg is one of the most important early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

cultural monuments in the Celle area. The ''Wallburg'' or fortified camp in the valley not far from the

may have acted as a refuge for the population.

References

External links

The official website of Celle town
{{Authority control Villages in Lower Saxony Celle