Dieskau Castle

Dieskau Castle is a castle in the village of Dieskau, part of the municipality of Kabelsketal in Saxony-Anhalt.

It is located on the western edge of the village in the floodplain landscape on the northern bank of the Reide. The castle is surrounded by Dieskau Castle Park, which was laid out starting in 1778. Immediately north of the castle is St. Anna's Church, built in 1728.

The castle was built in the Late Renaissance style on the site of a medieval moated castle. Construction phases from the second half of the 15th century have been identified. The builder of the castle was Hieronymus von Dieskau the Younger (1565–1625). In 1622, a partial reconstruction and new construction took place. The current appearance dates back to a renovation from 1878 onwards, carried out in the Neo-Renaissance style.

The castle has four three-story wings grouped around a courtyard with a rectangular layout. However, the north wing is only half the length of the others and dates back to the second half of the 15th century. The ground floor was built solidly, with two half-timbered floors above it. In front of the eastern wing is a polygonal stair tower. The east wing itself was originally built in 1458 as a late Gothic post-and-beam construction, also with a solid ground floor and two half-timbered floors. In the southwestern corner of the courtyard, there is also a false stair tower, which was built in the 19th century. In the south wing, a bricked-up portal with an inscription tablet from the 17th century can be seen. The south wing was built in two construction phases until 1624. The western wing was built during the 17th century.

In the south wing on the first floor, there is a room with a coffered ceiling created between 1622 and 1624, featuring religious motifs and moralizing texts. Twelve of the originally eighteen cassette fields are preserved. This is one of the oldest ceilings of its kind in Saxony-Anhalt. In the east wing, a plank room dating from the late Middle Ages has been preserved. In the west wing, there are wall paintings and, on its first floor, the classical ballroom. Large parts of the castle are currently (as of 2011) in need of restoration.

A restaurant is currently (as of 2011) housed on the ground floor of the west wing.