Ilsenburg

Owing to its surrounding of forests and mountains as well as its position on the edge of the Harz National Park, Ilsenburg is a popular tourist resort.The old castle, Schloss Ilsenburg, lying on a high crag above the town, was originally an imperial stronghold and probably built by King Henry I.In 995 Emperor Otto III resided in Elysynaburg, which Henry II bestowed in 1003 upon the Bishop of Halberstadt, who converted it into a Benedictine monastery.Higher still, on the edge of the plateau rises the Ilsenstein, a granite peak standing about 500 ft (150 m) above the valley, crowned by an iron cross erected by Count Anton von Stolberg-Wernigerode in memory of his friends who fell in the Napoleonic Wars of 1813-1815.[3] Ilsenburg is between Wernigerode (Saxony-Anhalt) in the east and Bad Harzburg (Lower Saxony) in the west through the Ilsetal.