Schloss Niesen, A castle in the Höxter district

Schloss Niesen is a Baroque manor house built between 1703 and 1704 in the Willebadessen district of Niesen, Kreis Höxter. The single-storey, symmetrical building has eleven window axes, a central risalit topped by a triangular gable, and an ornate Baroque portal reached by a two-flight outdoor staircase. On the garden side, two short four-axis wings frame a terrace with a balcony above. The house stands in a roughly 3-hectare landscape park with old trees and ponds.

A knight Johann von Nyhusen was first documented in 1262, and by 1300 the family held a water castle with a defensive tower. The residence was rebuilt as a water castle from 1555 to 1558, and a chapel followed in 1674. The present Baroque manor was built between 1703 and 1704; after a fire in 1951 the main building was rebuilt on a smaller scale in 1950s style.

The name Niesen derives from the von Nyhusen family, first recorded in 1262 and extinct in the male line in 1719 with the death of cathedral canon Georg von Niehausen. His nephew Engelhardt von Bocholtz inherited the estate, which stayed with the Bocholtz family until 1911. Since 1964 it has belonged to the von Elverfeldt family through the marriage of Margarethe von Vittinghoff-Schell.

The baroque manor stands on private grounds; the 3-hectare landscape park with its old trees, ponds, springs, waterfalls, grottoes and bridges is largely preserved. The garden side of the house has two short four-axis side wings framing a terrace and a balcony above it. The estate lies in the Niesen district of Willebadessen, in the Höxter district of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The 1951 fire destroyed the main building, which was rebuilt on a smaller scale in 1950s style. The present house is therefore a single-storey baroque body with eleven window axes, a triangular gable over the central risalit and a two-flight outdoor staircase. The garden side has two short four-axis wings framing a terrace and a balcony above it.