Scheerau Castle

The hermitage was called "Kitzenau" until the 18th century; only since the early 17th century was the new name Scherau also used. The Nuremberg council clerk and chronicler Johannes Müllner described it around 1620 under both names "Scharnaw" and "Kitzenau" as "a single farmstead together with several ponds, on which a manor house was also built, belonging to the Fuerers today". The farm was one of the so-called Zeidelmuttergüter, the oldest imperial fiefs, from which further settlement development in the Reichswald had originated. Neither in the reports on the land survey, which the Nuremberg Council had ordered in 1504 before the outbreak of the Landshut War of Succession, nor in the damage lists of the Second Margrave War, does the farm appear with a manor house. This suggests an origin under the Nuremberg family of the Fürer von Haimendorf only in the course of the later 16th century.

The appearance of the old manor house is preserved by a building application plan, with which Christoph Sigmund Fürer applied in 1765 for the demolition and construction of a new building at the Waldamt Lorenzi. It was a rather modest two-story half-timbered building, about 11 meters long and 5 meters wide, whose ground floor contained only stables. On the upper floor, which was only accessible via a wooden outdoor staircase on the front facade, the Fürer family had a living room, a chamber, and a large anteroom at their disposal.

The massive new building was to be about 13.5 meters long and 9.3 meters wide with five by three window axes, and the ashlar stones for the enclosing walls were to be brought from a Fischbach quarry. For the ground floor, a central house entrance was planned in the middle axis, leading only to the staircase to the upper floor. The stable, spanned by a six-bay vault, was arranged in the right half of the house and accessible only from the courtyard, as were the two chambers in the left half, which were apparently intended for staff. The stately rooms, in turn, were arranged on the upper floor. The application plan shows a living room, a kitchen, two chambers, a spacious hall, and a narrow toilet corridor on the east side. Inside, the ceilings of the living room, the anterooms, and the staircase were stuccoed.

The hip-roofed building, completed by the end of 1767, still presents itself today with unfaced ashlar facades, which are structured by corner pilasters, a cornice, and profiled facade openings. Above the entrance, the alliance coat of arms of the builder and his wife Anna Maria, née Grundherr, is framed by a cartouche with rocaille ornamentation.

In 1823, the manor house was once again subjected to an unspecified construction measure by the Fürer family. After the death of Karl Gustav Gottlieb von Fürer, the community of heirs sold it in January 1840 to the couple Heinrich and Margaretha Abraham. The purchase included the manor house, a second residential building with stables, which had probably served as a Voithaus, a barn, a storage building, the pigsty, and a bakery. The buyer, as inscribed dates prove, renewed the farm buildings around 1846 and continued the former Zeidelmuttergut with its traditional forest and fishing rights as a farm.

In 1849, the couple handed it over to their son Heinrich and daughter-in-law Margaretha Meier, who managed it for almost half a century. Only in July 1898 was the estate divided between the two sons. Andreas Abraham took over the former manor house with one half of the farm, which continued to be used for agriculture, forestry, and fishing. He was followed by his son Georg and then his granddaughter Luise, who married Konrad Sußner. The manor house is still in family ownership and is currently being meticulously restored by the family Martin and Birgit Sußner with great dedication and craftsmanship, in accordance with its historical monument status.