The research project "Topography of Power" at Aarhus University seeks to explore the relationship between a castle and its surroundings. This presentation will outline the results from viewshed analyses of selected Danish castles with a known social background based on archaeological and written sources. This study is inspired by the family "von Hagen-Arnsburg-Münzenberg" who managed a rise both in social and in topographical terms moving their seat from the lowlands to the low rubble terrace and then finally on top of a prominent hill while also socially advancing from an unfree family of servants to upper nobility in the central German region Wetterau. This ambiguous rise is also evident in the Danish sites with the results indicating that the status of a castle's lord is mirrored by its visibility i.e. royal and ducal castles tend to be situated in prominent and visible positions, whereas knightly or peasant fortifications rather can be described as hide-outs.