In the 10th century the German royal Ottonian dynasty had the Werla Pfalz erected within their Saxon homelands of Eastphalia, like the nearby castles of Goslar, Dahlum, Grona and Pöhlde.

While the horses sank into the swampy area of the nearby river, Henry managed to capture a Hungarian nobleman—probably Zoltán, son of Grand Prince Árpád—and to reach an agreement on a nine-years-truce, after which he was able to defeat the magyars at the 933 Battle of Riade.

Upon the sudden death of Emperor Otto III in 1002, Margrave Henry of Schweinfurt and late Otto's sisters Sophia of Gandersheim and Adelaide of Quedlinburg met with the Saxon princes at Werla, in order to promote the succession of the Ottonian duke Henry IV of Bavaria against his rivals Margrave Eckard of Meissen and Duke Herman II of Swabia.

A last stay of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick Barbarossa to subjugate the Saxon princes upon the deposition of his Welf rival Duke Henry the Lion is documented for 15 August 1180.

Not until 1875, the foundations were re-discovered by archaeological excavations, confirmed by digs of the Leibniz University Hannover and the Lower Saxony State Museum in 1926 and 1934 resp.