Schneidlingen Castle

Schneidlingen Castle is a moated castle in the village of Schneidlingen in the Salzlandkreis district of Saxony-Anhalt.

Schneidlingen moated castle, which is counted among the so-called "Kastellburgen" (castellated castles), was probably built at the beginning of the 14th century on the eastern edge of the village. It was first mentioned in a document in 1324/25, where it was described as belonging to the Bishopric of Halberstadt. In the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, the complex was often pledged and, according to contemporary sources, fell into a poor structural condition.

In 1604, the Halberstadt Cathedral Chapter acquired the office and castle of Schneidlingen due to its location in the particularly fertile Magdeburg Börde through an exchange with the Protestant administrator of the bishopric, Duke Heinrich Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. Especially from 1611 to 1620, the core complex and the large outer bailey were extensively redesigned under the direction of the church politician and economist Matthias von Oppen, the long-standing dean of the Cathedral Chapter, and transformed into a model agricultural estate. The first bailiff of Schneidlingen was Michel Heyne, who had previously worked at Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel's Gröningen court, and who was the progenitor of the Heyne/Heine family, later important for the region (including Gröningen, Heynburg, Hakeborn, Hedersleben, St. Burchard vor Halberstadt...).

The castle then included, in addition to the actual complex, a mill and a network of various outworks. In 1945, the owners were dispossessed and expelled by the communists. During the GDR era, the complex served as a kindergarten and an old people's home and subsequently fell into disrepair. The complex has been maintained and restored by a castle association since the mid-1990s.