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Origin and history

The castle of Diedendorf, located in the Lower Rhine, has its origins in the late 16th century. The site was already occupied by an earlier castle, probably destroyed around 1530 with the village. In 1570, Jean IV de Nassau-Sarrebruck granted land in Diedendorf to Jean Streiff de Lauenstein, baili of the Earl of Sarrewerden. The latter built a new castle, completed around 1580, whose architecture reflects the influences of the Rhine Renaissance.

The castle remained in the Streiff family until 1722, when he passed to the Münchhausen by inheritance, after a legal dispute with a distant relative, Charles Streiff de Lauenstein. In 1730, the Münchhausen sold it to Auguste Guillaume de Lüder, bailli of Sarrewerden. The monument then changed hands several times in the 18th century, often as a debt payment, before being acquired in 1862 by Simon Striffler, a Lorrain landowner. The castle suffered major damage during the 1944 bombings and, despite repairs, became obsolete after 1966.

On the architectural level, the castle is distinguished by its rectangular house flanked by two wings and two corner towers, one of which houses a spiral staircase. Its interior walls, decorated with rare motifs (cariates, floral bouquets) and 16th-century murals, as well as 18th-century decorations, were protected by inscriptions to historical monuments in 1977 and 2002. The park, including an orchard, is listed among the remarkable gardens.

The interior decor, inspired by the Rhine, offers an exceptional witness to the life of the Alsatian nobility during the Renaissance. The vaults, floor ceilings, woodwork and fireplaces, partially reported from other Strasbourg and Phalsbourgeois buildings, illustrate the evolution of aristocratic tastes between the 16th and 18th centuries. The castle, now private, thus retains a double value, both historical and artistic.

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