Schloss Sankt Martin im Innkreis, Baroque château in Diesseits, Sankt Martin im Innkreis, Austria

Schloss Sankt Martin im Innkreis is a massive square baroque building with a smooth facade, its three storeys divided by ochre-coloured string courses and its corners emphasised by plaster quoins in the same colour, which also frames the windows. A simple gate leads into the courtyard, where a sculpture fountain with a youth playing the mandolin stands in a garden. The first-floor rooms are richly decorated with stucco and colourful allegorical panels.

First mentioned in 1150 as a wooden seat of the Schwenter family, surrounded by a pond. In 1430 it passed to Ortolf von Trennbach; Bishop Urban von Trennbach of Passau was born here. After 1626, when peasants burned it twice, it was rebuilt in stone and enlarged. A 1723 fire led to the baroque rebuild completed in 1726, giving the present appearance.

The baroque chapel, consecrated to Saint Florian, was finished in 1726 during the rebuild after the 1723 fire. In 1865 Countess Maria Arco-Valley married Sir Acton, a member of the English House of Commons, in this chapel. The first-floor rooms of the palace are richly decorated with stucco and allegorical painted panels.

The castle stands in a park walled on three sides and closed to the public; the fourth boundary is the Antiesen river. The pond that once surrounded it was drained in 1854. To the right of the driveway is the farm wing, with a riding stable and the Reiterschenke behind it.

After World War II, the Spanish Riding School found refuge at the castle, creating an unexpected chapter in its long history. This period of use as shelter for the famous riding school is largely forgotten today.