Wasserschloss Breitenlohe, Renaissance water castle in Breitenlohe, Germany

Wasserschloss Breitenlohe is a 16th-century castle with four three-story wings and round corner towers arranged around a closed courtyard. A water moat surrounds the entire structure and defines its distinctive appearance.

The site was first mentioned in 1340 under the Hohenlohe family, suffered major destruction in 1525 during the Peasant Wars, and was rebuilt afterward by Kunz Christoph von Vestenberg. This reconstruction shaped the castle into its present form.

The castle's name refers to the water castle (Wasserschloss) at Breitenlohe, a village part of Burghaslach in Middle Franconia. The four wings enclose a rectangular courtyard with a round stair tower in the southwest corner and an octagonal one in the northeast. On the east wing, a basket-arched rusticated gateway with half-columns and vase finials dates from 1720–30.

The castle stands in the centre of Breitenlohe and is reached via Staatsstraße 2256. It is a private property restored by the Friedrich family, so the courtyard and moat bridge are seen from outside; the two-arched stone bridge with balustrade and sandstone figures of the Immaculata and St John Nepomuk, repaired in 1734, faces the entrance.

The southwest corner tower held the castle prison, as the Bavarian monument list records. The same list notes the two stair towers inside the courtyard: a round one in the southwest corner and an octagonal one in the northeast corner, both still visible from the yard.