Riede Castle

Riede Castle is a Renaissance building in Riede, a district of Bad Emstal in the North Hessian district of Kassel.

The first documented mention of the village of Riede dates back to 1074. The castle was built on the foundations of a farm belonging to the Augustinian monastery of Merxhausen. This original building fabric was verifiable through a Romanesque chapel until the 19th century.

In 1443, the first verifiable owner, Henne von Wehren, who held it as a fief from the Landgraves of Hesse, sold the property to the Hessian noble family of Meysenbug. In 1563, using extensive parts of the existing building, the castle was erected in the Weser Renaissance style, with a knight's hall at its center. The Renaissance cast iron plates in the bay window room, created according to the designs of the Hessian iron founder Philipp Soldan, date from 1574.

In 1674, a manor house, a simple hall building with half-timbered turrets, was added to the castle by Wolrad von Meysenbug. In the 17th century, a herb garden, which still exists today, was laid out. Commissioned by Leo von Meysenbug, the castle was rebuilt in the 17th and then again in the 18th century; in the process, the unity of the complex was lost. Around 1770, the castle complex was supplemented with an English garden by Heinrich von Meysenbug.

In 1810, the Meysenbug family died out with Heinrich von Meysenbug, and the fief reverted to the then sovereign, Jérôme Bonaparte, King of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia, who gifted it to his Grand Equerry, General Philippe François Maurice d’Albignac, appointed Count of Ried; however, he never personally saw Riede. After the restitution of the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel in 1813, Elector Wilhelm I gifted the castle to his son, Crown Prince Wilhelm II, who stayed there briefly with his mistress Emilie Ortlöpp.

In 1825, the von Buttlar family bought the castle, park, and farm buildings and kept them until their sale in 2007. In 1878, the Romanesque chapel had to make way for the extension of the south wing.

The historic knight's hall in the castle is now available as a wedding venue. In addition, the castle houses a small art gallery in some rooms, which shows temporary exhibitions.