Diez Castle

The High Medieval Count's Castle Diez is a hilltop castle above the town of Diez in the Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

The High Medieval castle Grafenschloss Diez is perched on a porphyry rock directly above the old town of Diez. The town and the castle are located above the confluence of the Aar and Lahn rivers at a ford that was used by several ancient roads.

The date, builder, and motive for the first castle construction at this site are not known. Already for the first mention of the place in 790 as "Theodissa", the existence of a Frankish military station to protect the ford is presumed.

According to tradition, the keep and the palas were built in the second half of the 11th century, but before 1073, by the Counts of Diez. The foundation stone is said to have been laid by the brother of Emmerich von Diez. Of this complex, only the foundations of the main tower remain today.

With the most significant expansion of the County of Diez from the second half of the 11th century, the castle was considerably extended. In 1329, the town of Diez received city rights. After the division of the County of Diez into the lines Diez and Weilnau, Diez Castle remained in the joint possession of both lines, who maintained representative residences here. At the end of the 13th century, Hermann von Weilnau, provost of the Georgstift in Limburg, had extensive construction work carried out on the castle.

In 1386, the last Count of Diez, Gerhard VII, died. His remaining territory, including Diez Castle, passed through his daughter Jutta to his son-in-law, Count Adolf of Nassau-Dillenburg (House of Nassau-Dillenburg Ottonian Line). Adolf of Nassau-Dillenburg also died without male descendants. Half of his Diez inheritance fell to his brother Engelbert of Nassau-Dillenburg, the other half to the House of Eppstein. The Lords of Eppstein pledged half of their possessions to the County of Katzenelnbogen. With the death of Philipp of Katzenelnbogen in 1479, the County of Katzenelnbogen fell to the Landgraviate of Hesse. The Hessian Landgraves sold half of their share (i.e., one-eighth of Diez Castle) to Kurtrier in 1534. The remaining Eppstein share (one-quarter) was inherited in 155 by the Counts of Königstein, who sold it to the Counts of Nassau-Dillenburg in 1530. As part of the dispute over the extensive Katzenelnbogen inheritance, the House of Nassau-Dillenburg achieved sole rule over the castle with the Treaty of Diez in 1564.

Under the Counts of Nassau, Diez Castle was transformed into an early Renaissance princely palace. Dutch craftsmen were preferentially commissioned for the work.

With the division of the Ottonian House of Nassau in 1606, Diez Castle became the seat of the Counts of Nassau-Diez (or Orange-Nassau). As the center of their possessions was in the Netherlands, Diez Castle served as a widow's residence for Sophie Hedwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1592-1642) and Albertine Agnes of Orange-Nassau (1634-1696). Due to the now inadequate living situation, Albertine had Oranienstein Castle built near Diez in 1672. In the following period, the castle served only as an administrative building.

In 1778/1779, the castle was converted into a prison according to plans by building inspector Sckell. The prison was expanded in 1806. The castle retained this function until 1928. From 1910, however, the prison was gradually relocated to a new building near Freiendiez. Since the end of the 18th century, various crafts were carried out in the prison. The most significant of these was the processing of Lahn marbles.

The town of Diez and Prussia wanted to hand over the castle to the Dutch royal family, but they declined. In 1953, a youth hostel was established in the castle. In the 1960s, the Nassauisches Heimatmuseum was set up in the castle. There were some private apartments in the outer bailey.