Guttenburg Castle

An illustration by Johann Adam Delsenbach from around 1720/30 shows the small castle in Guttenburg as a single-story plastered building with a mansard roof. The manor house came into the possession of Hieronymus Wilhelm von Ebner as universal heir in 1718 after the death of Christoph Hieronymus Voit von Wendelstein, his nephew [cf. Erlenstegen II]. A "Specification" of the movable property located in Guttenburg Manor, probably drawn up in this context, is also the oldest evidence for the existence of a manor house on the site.

The Voit von Wendelstein family had already acquired extensive estates and rights (including the tithe right as a fief of Bamberg) in the locality in 1527, which had previously been in the hands of Nuremberg citizens and the Lords of Wildenstein and can be traced back to the mid-15th century. In the following decades, the Voits expanded their property in Guttenberg by purchasing farms, estates, and fields, without a manor house becoming apparent.

This argues against the existence of an older manor house and for the construction of the small castle only in the late 17th century. From 1745–1750, extensive repairs were carried out and the roof truss was rebuilt. A few decades later, the manor house was already "in need of repair" again, as evidenced by a (unfortunately not preserved) plan of the first floor and several cost estimates. For the year 1787/88, a repertory preserved in the Praun family archive lists "seven items ... concerning the construction of the castle and the establishment of new apartments therein", although it remains unclear whether this was merely a modernization. In 1989, the manor house was destroyed by lightning and rebuilt shortly thereafter.