Veste Landskron Veste Landskron or Lanzkron is a Renaissance water castle in the municipality Neuendorf B , Vorpommern - Greifswald district , Mecklenburg - Vorpommern , Germany . Built between 1576 and 1579 , it deteriorated in the 17th century . Its ruins are a tourist attraction and frequently the site of cultural events . Geography . Landskron is southeast of the junction of autobahn 20 and federal route B 199 , south of the village Janow ( part of the Neuendorf B municipality ) and west of the village Rehberg ( part of the Spantekow municipality ) . To the south is the Großer Landgraben valley , marking the border between Mecklenburg and Pomerania . Made of boulder s and bricks , it is situated on an elevation of glacial till surrounded by swampy meadows . Construction , buildings . Construction was started in 1576 by Ulrich II von Schwerin , member of one of the oldest Pomeranian noble houses . The von Schwerin family was divided in about 24 branches in the 17th century , whose members lived in Pomerania , Mecklenburg , Brandenburg , Poland and Sweden . Ulrich was the fifth son of another Ulrich von Schwerin , " Großhofmeister " at the Pomeranian ducal court . He financed the building , which cost about 40 , 000 gulden , from pay received for military service for the duke of Mecklenburg . The castle was designed as a Renaissance style water castle . The rectangular main building , a keep about long and wide with three upper stories and a basement , was secured by four round towers attached to its edges , a wall and a moat . One of the keep ' s towers ( " Hungerturm " ) was used as a dungeon to incarcerate abducted people held for ransom . Attached to the keep ' s eastern front was the entrance building ( " Vorschloß " ) , about long and wide . In front of the entrance to the keep , which could be reached by a drawbridge , laid the courtyard ( " Vorburg " ) , and both the keep and the courtyard were surrounded by an outer wall and another moat . In the west , the outer wall was immediately adjacent to the inner moat and comprised five small bastions . The castle was entered through a gatehouse in the northern outer wall , comprising a guardhouse west of the gateway that led to the courtyard , and the stables in its eastern part , where also a well was located . A second drawbridge , made from copper according to legend , spanned the outer moat in front of the gatehouse . Two other separate buildings stood on the courtyard - a chapel to the south and a kitchen to the east . The castle was finished in 1579 . Name . The initial and still most widely used name of the castle was " Landskron " ( " Land ' s Crown " ) . Legend tells that the name was frowned upon by the Pomeranian duke , who pressured Ulrich to rename it " Lanzkron " ( " Lance ' s Crown " ) , which is also in use as an alternative name . Noble owners and deterioration . The date of Ulrich von Schwerin ' s death is unknown . Landskron was inherited by one of his sons , Georg Ernst , who later passed it to his son Ulrich Wigand . The castle deteriorated due to the impact of the Thirty Years ' War , during which the villages around Landskron were burned down , and mismanagement . When Georg Ernst died in 1651 , Landskron was inherited by his daughter Anna , who married the Swedish noble von Anrieppe ( " see Swedish Pomerania " ) . Their daughter Agnes von Anrieppe married Jürgen von Pentz , who soon abandoned Landskron and in 1699 sold it to Philipp von Schwerin , a nephew of Otto von Schwerin , advisor of the Brandenburgian elector , for 13 , 000 thaler s . Philipp von Schwerin did not rebuild the castle , which had further detoriorated during the Scanian War , but moved his residence to nearby Rehberg . According to local folklore , the nobles at Landskron and the neighboring castles Conerow , Klempenow and Spantekow frequently engaged as robber baron s holding up transports between the towns Anklam , Demmin , Friedland , Jarmen and Teterow . Legend tells that they used golden horns to communicate with each other , allegedly confiscated from " Turkish " guards in the age of Barbarossa . Recent history . The ruins of the castle have attracted tourists since the 19th century . In 1852 , a tavern was built on the ruins of the kitchen building in the courtyard . This building was occupied until the 1960s , but subsequently demolished . Today , it is a tourist attraction and used as a site for concerts and other events .