Red Castle Heroldsberg

The Red Castle was built in the years before 1487 by Martin III. Geuder (1455–1532) "on Kunz Schäfer's inheritance". In 1487, Geuder promised the Imperial City of Nuremberg to sell his house, as it was "enclosed with ditches, fences and walls", only to a Nuremberg citizen. In 1510, Albrecht Dürer, a friend of Martin Geuder, drew the view of the church and the Green Castle from a window of the Red Castle. Through an exchange, the imperial fiefdom castle became free property in 1489. Martin Geuder's grandson Julius (died 1594) had the castle, which was destroyed in the Margrave War in 1552, rebuilt around 1589. The ground floor, apparently taken over from the old building, features bossed ashlar with marginal drafting and partly still loopholes, while the upper floors are set off by a continuous cavetto cornice.

Through the marriage of Julius Geuder's daughter Maria Magdalena in 1591, the Red Castle came into the possession of Seyfried Pfinzing [cf. Heuchling, Weigelshof] and in 1617 to the charitable foundation named after him. Damage during the Thirty Years' War was repaired soon after 1648. An illustration by Johann Alexander Boener from 1708 shows us the manor shortly before the renovations that began in 1711. The three stories, each with four window axes, were covered with a high hip roof with a central bay window; the upper floors were accessed via a tower built on the northwest corner, extending beyond the roof.

After reacquiring the castle from the Pfinzing family, Karl Benedikt Geuder had extensive restoration work carried out, which is commemorated by the archway with the year 1711. The roof dormers with broken pediments presumably date back to this renovation. The second floor was decorated with Baroque stucco ceilings by Master Donato Polli (1663–1738) from Lugano, while the valuable Renaissance wood paneling in the "great hall" below was preserved. The Baroque redesign of the garden, with its surrounding wall, the sandstone gate with the weathered Geuder coat of arms, and the castle pond, largely preserved to this day, also dates back to Karl Benedikt Geuder. The elongated forecourt, located east of the castle, is framed on both sides by former servants' quarters. A barn, allegedly built as early as 1539, a bake oven, and a draw well have also been preserved there.

In 1962, Geuder's grandson Dr. Roland Brunel owned the castle, then his widow Dr. Erika Brunel-Geuder, and today her son Roland Brunel-Geuder. The Brunel-Geuder family has made the castle accessible to the public: In the summer months, the local cultural association of Heroldsberg occasionally organizes concerts in the castle courtyard.