1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bardowiek
BARDOWIEK, a village of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, 3 m. N. of Lüneburg on the navigable Ilmenau. Pop. 2000. Its trade consists entirely in agricultural produce. The Gothic parish church (c. 1400) incorporates remains of a cathedral of vast dimensions.
Bardowiek was founded in the 8th century by Charlemagne, who established a bishopric in it, and until its destruction by Henry the Lion in 1189, it was the most prosperous commercial city of north Germany. Its name is derived from the Longobardi, the tribe for whom it was the home and centre, and from it the colonization of Lombardy started.