Eichhof Castle

Eichhof Castle is first mentioned in documents in 1440 in the Coburg district of Scheuerfeld and its district Dörfles on a small hill above the valley of the Güßbach stream. It has been privately owned since 1979 and is managed as an estate with horse breeding.

Original Construction

Peter von Eychoff is mentioned in the Coburg annals in 1440 as a naturalized citizen. He owned the eponymous estate in Scheuerfeld, which in 1516 already named an Anton von Rosenau as owner, but after a short time passed into the possession of the Coburg Duke Johann Casimir. Nothing is known about the structural conditions up to this time, but the still existing barrel vault of the cellar seems to date from the 16th century. The current form of the two-story castle with a high hip roof and several small dormer windows was created in several stages. The older part facing the hillside was built on the old foundations in 1676, while the wing built at a right angle to it was only added in the 18th century. In its attic, there are two rooms with baroque stucco ceilings. A simple Rococo portal with a basket arch was added later.

Extensions

Around 1590, Nicolaus Zech, rent master and chamberlain to the Coburg Duke Johann Casimir, bought the village of Scheuerfeld, which had emerged from ten former hill farms from the 5th and 6th centuries, and, with the so-called castle he built and the existing farms, formed a knight's estate. In 1598, Duke Casimir gifted him the nearby Eichhof Castle out of gratitude for his successful reorganization of the court finances, which enabled the seemingly creditworthy Casimir to generously expand Coburg. Five years later, however, Casimir had his finance minister imprisoned for insulting a prince, where Zech died in 1607.

His children Helena and Markus inherited his property. Helena married Dr. jur. Johann Christian von Merklin, the son of Coburg mayor Philipp Merklin, in 1615. Helena died as early as 1617 during the birth of her second son, and her husband became the sole owner of the entire knight's estate by purchasing Markus Zech's share. His sons divided the inheritance after his death. The younger received Eichhof Castle, the elder Scheuerfeld.

Johann von Merklin's great-grandson, Major Friedrich Bernhard von Merklin, sold the property in 1765, which finally returned to ducal possession in 1864. The new owners rebuilt the existing buildings for the relocation of the Prince of Ratibor. Thus, the attached wing received a projecting transverse gable on its narrow side and a cast-iron veranda on the first floor, which can be reached from the garden via a spiral staircase that is two-flight at the bottom and merges at the top. In the 1830s, two-winged stables were built diagonally opposite the castle. At the meeting point of the wing ridges, a tower-like roof turret with a lantern rises. A square greenhouse with a tent roof was built somewhat apart. The half-timbered building housed the gardener's apartment on the upper floor. From 1906 to 1919, the Grand Marshal Carl Eduard von Rüxleben lived in the castle, which remained the property of the House of Coburg even after the settlement agreement of 1919.