Engelthal Castle

One of the most historically significant buildings in Eastern Franconia presents itself rather inconspicuously today. The ruin of the monastery, burned down on May 31, 1553, during the Second Margrave War, was restored by the Imperial City as a bailiff's castle starting in 1557. From its founding in 1243 until its destruction, a Dominican convent had developed here, traditionally recruiting its novices from the Franconian and Upper Palatinate nobility and the Nuremberg patriciate. Spiritual life in Franconia reached a peak in Engelthal in the early 14th century, when the mystics Christine Ebner and Adelheid Langmann worked here, spreading the monastery's reputation throughout Europe. With the end of the Landshut War of Succession in 1504, the end of the monastery became apparent. Engelthal came under the sovereignty of Nuremberg and experienced the Reformation. However, it was not until 1565 that the convent, in which only two sisters lived at last, was dissolved, and an imperial city bailiff's office replaced the monastic bailiff's office for administrative and lower court tasks. High jurisdiction, however, remained with the Hersbruck bailiff's office.

From 1565 until the mediatization of the imperial city's territory, the bailiff's castle remained the official seat and residence of the respective bailiff. After construction measures around 1560 to restore the ruins as a bailiff's castle, a major renovation was due in 1609, when the Engelthal bailiff Jobst Kress wanted to improve access to the rooms. The imperial city master builder Matthes Pfeffer and the city master carpenter Peter Carl came to Engelthal to design two variants: the addition of a stair tower and the installation of a two-flight internal staircase. The regional bailiff's office finally ordered the more cost-effective installation of an internal staircase structure, which primarily led to changes on the ground floor. The fact that the stair tower was built a few decades later is proven by a report from 1654, when the bailiff's castle and the newly built stair tower were to be painted with oil paints. After a presumably more extensive repair in 1705, a modernization was initiated in 1737, during which the stucco work in the representative rooms was probably also carried out.

The main building of the bailiff's castle is a two-story building that today extends west of a small square and contains a passage into the former inner monastery courtyard and later economic courtyard of the bailiff's office. It housed the bailiff's residence and was referred to as "Herrenhaus" or "Pflegerhaus" in 1790/92. To the north, the former chapter house adjoins at a right angle, which was converted into an official granary for storing grain taxes around 1560. However, the hall of the bailiff's office was also set up on the eastern ground floor of the storage building.

With the incorporation of Nuremberg into the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Engelthal bailiff's office was dissolved. After an inventory of the numerous properties, carried out by the Royal Bavarian Rentamt Altdorf in 1808, the formerly imperial city property was broken up and sold to several private interested parties. Agricultural estates were established in the former monastery and later castle complex. The core of the medieval buildings, though much altered, has been preserved to this day. The roof structure of the later granary building from the 16th century was exemplarily restored by the private owner in 2005/06.