Kressenstein Manor

According to older tradition, Burgrave Friedrich had already accepted the brothers Friedrich and Herdegen "Holzschuher", citizens of Nuremberg, as "castrenses" (castle men) of his castle in Kraftshof in 1276. It seemed to fit quite well that a stone on the wall of the Kressenstein still bears the alliance coat of arms of Kress and Strobel with the year 1291. However, the document from 1276 proved to be a forgery, and the coat of arms stone from 1291 an addition probably from the 15th century.

Rather, Kraftshof was old imperial property and was in the hands of the Lords (formerly imperial ministeriales) von Berg in the 14th century. One of the farms there was given by them as a so-called sub-fief to the Kress family. In 1357, Brechtel Cresse sold the farm (later these words of the document were falsified to "the house" - thus creating the impression that the Kress family already had a manor house in Kraftshof at that time), "as it was located at the Crafftshof", with all its appurtenances, an imperial fief of the von Berg, to his brother-in-law Konrad Ehinger from a Nuremberg council family. It was only this family that turned the farm into a seat, which they opened to the imperial city in 1370 - Kraftshof thus became one of Nuremberg's oldest fortified outposts. In 1379, the Berg family renounced their feudal lordship over the "Stone House" in Kraftshof, which from then on became an immediate imperial fief of the Ehinger family and their successors.

From the Ehinger family, the residence changed hands in 1375/76 to the Ebner family, then in 1400 - now referred to as "house with the pond, moat and garden" - to Hermann Volland and finally in 1403 to the brothers Konrad and Ulrich Kress. The "dwelling and seat in Crafftshoffe with the courtyard, pond and moat" remained in the uninterrupted possession of this family, as Konrad Kress stipulated in his will in 1429. The name Kressenstein is allegedly first found in Ulrich Kress's land register of 1410.

The exposed location made the seat a rewarding target for attacks during conflicts with the Margrave. Thus, in the First Margrave War on July 4, 1449, "in Kraftshof, the old castle site, commonly called the Kressenstein, also went up in smoke." This is retrospectively described in Christoph Kress's family and coat of arms book of 1530 "as a strong fortified water house with a moat man-deep and two as large as the current pond or moat." The pond around the old Kressenstein originally extended further east to the Kraftshofer Hauptstraße and included the site of the new manor house built around 1457 and presumably also its forecourt. Georg Kress also spoke in 1537 of a larger complex than the remains of the castle site preserved to this day suggest: the new seat built by his grandfather was "completely insignificant and defenceless compared to the previous one."

Although the Kressenstein castle site appears in the feudal documents from 1478 to 1767 as the core of the Kress family's Kraftshof property, it was not initially restored. Rather, a shed was first built there - more precisely, probably in the forecourt - around 1452/60. In 1583, there was also a cellar and "a barn with the house attached to it." Two years later, Hieronymus Kress also rebuilt the castle site itself. Since he "had no proper dwelling there," he "had to stay in the summer house on the old castle site called Kressenstein, as I annually held the church fair and at other times the church accounts there." This building with a masonry, probably windowless ground floor and a simple half-timbered upper floor, as well as a gable roof with a bell tower, was much smaller than the neighboring manor house and looked almost lost on the massive base of the old Kressenstein.

The situation had hardly changed when Hans Bien depicted the Kraftshof manor house in detail in a pen drawing around 1629. The old seat lay on the preserved "stone base", connected to the castle forecourt by a bridge, exactly in the street axis to the church in what was, as mentioned, obviously a formerly larger pond. This also flowed around the new manor house to the northeast.

What was still a welcome alternative accommodation in 1585 became an emergency shelter during the Thirty Years' War. After initial destruction and looting in the village of Kraftshof in 1632 and 1633, the Kress water castle was also burned down in 1634, along with the rectory, the forge, and numerous other buildings. They apparently initially made do with the "annex or fisherman's house" in the forecourt. However, because in 1676 the castle "still lay in ashes and no rooms or dwelling were available," Jobst Christoph Kress applied "to be allowed to set up a fireplace and dwelling in the existing hall called Kressenstein - however, with the condition that upon future rebuilding of the castle, the fireplace right in the hall would be redeemed and transferred back." The supposed temporary solution lasted almost 50 years: during their stays in Kraftshof, the Kress family took quarters in the old castle site. It was not until 1712/13 that Georg Adolf Kress had a representative two-story baroque manor house with a hip roof built on the site of the former farm buildings. This probably meant that the "summer house" on the old castle site once again lived up to its name. Finally, the Kress family archive was housed there until 1934. While the baroque manor house was destroyed in World War II, the "Kressenstein", thoroughly renovated in 1933/34, remained preserved in its substance.