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Cathie DATCHARY (6 months ago)
Closed castle seems abandoned
Closed castle seems abandoned
The site of Château de Diedendorf been occupied by a castle since at least the second half of the 15th century. This previous castle was probably destroyed around 1530, along with the village.
By a letter of investiture dated February 12, 1570, Count Jean IV of Nassau-Saarbrücken granted in fee to Jean Streiff de Lauenstein, who was then the bailiff of the Count of Sarrewerden, a farmstead and lands in Diedendorf. It was in this village that Jean Streiff had a castle built shortly thereafter, completed around 1580.
The castle remained the property of Jean Streiff's descendants until 1722 when it passed to the Münchhausen family. Since Otto-Ferdinand Streiff de Lauenstein had died without an heir, it was indeed passed to his niece, Charlotte-Quadt de Lanseron, who had married Ernest Griedmann de Münchhausen. However, another more distant heir, Charles Streiff de Lauenstein, believed that the fief belonged to him and brought the matter before the courts, which partially ruled in his favor and awarded the estate to both heirs. Finally, on January 23, 1730, Charles Streiff renounced his share in exchange for compensation, and the castle became the full and complete property of the Munchhäusen.
However, they disposed of it almost immediately by selling it on September 17, 1730, to Auguste Guillaume de Lüder, the bailiff of Sarrewerden. After remaining in this family for some time, Charles-Frédéric de Lüder transferred it in 1753 to his overlord, Guillaume Henri de Nassau-Saarbrücken. He sold it for 19,000 florins to Gustave de Geisspitzheim in 1763, and then the castle changed hands rapidly in the following decades, often as payment for the debts of its successive owners.
In 1862, it finally came into the possession of Simon Striffler, a former notary clerk and a significant landowner in Lorraine. His son inherited the castle, which he lived in until his death in 1941, but the castle was no longer occupied by its owners after that date, especially as it suffered significant damage during bombings in November 1944. Although it underwent some repairs after the war, certain parts of the residence remained dilapidated, and after the death of Simon Striffler's grandchildren in 1966, the property was sold to Richard Clark.
The interior walls of the castle have a unique Rhenish-style decoration in Alsace. This allows us to imagine the living conditions of the nobility in the region in the 16th century. They are adorned with cordons, floral bouquets, and cariatides, motifs very rare in the region. The original interior decoration with vaults, beamed ceilings, mural paintings, woodwork, floors, and added fireplaces from the 18th century were registered as historical monuments in 2002.
References:The Jan Hus Memorial stands at one end of Old Town Square. The huge monument depicts victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus, and a young mother who symbolises national rebirth. The monument was so large that the sculptor designed and built his own villa and studio where the work could be carried out. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Jan Hus' martyrdom. The memorial was designed by Ladislav Šaloun and paid for solely by public donations.
Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe.