Wölckern Castle Kalchreuth

In the late 15th century, the Nuremberg citizen Matthäus Sauermann owned several estates in Kalchreuth, held as fiefs from the Empire and the Margraves, some probably from previous Haller possession. In 1492, he is said to have built his own residence, which in 1504 appears as a second residence next to the Haller manor house and was opened to the Nuremberg Council in 1517. Together with the other village lords, Matthäus Sauermann issued a community ordinance in 1527. In the Second Margrave War of 1552/53, his "manor house was burned down... worth about 600 guilders". The small castle was at least provisionally restored by the Sauermann family. After the family had already sold off the associated estates around the middle of the 17th century, they also sold the residence in 1683 to Friedrich Waldstromer, who, however, died soon after.

From his heirs, the Nuremberg Council acquired the small castle in 1684 and had a half-timbered upper floor built on the apparently largely intact sandstone ground floor to set up a forester's residence here. However, since the Imperial City did not receive the necessary imperial enfeoffment, it sold the residence to the Nuremberg Council consultant Dr. Christian Leonhard Leucht, who sold it in 1716 to Georg Karl Imhoff. The latter often stayed in Kalchreuth, where he died in 1719. His son Philipp Ernst Imhoff requested timber in 1759 for the renovation of his "dilapidated dwelling house"; the enclosed plan shows the elevation and floor plans of both the existing and the planned building. The Forest Office granted the request to "gradually rebuild the dwelling house, as it can no longer be properly repaired... entirely two-story and of stone...". The plans show that the massive ground floor was probably taken over from the 16th century and only the windows were changed. The half-timbered upper floor, however, was to be completely removed and replaced by stone. Although the size and room layout of the 13.8 by 8.4 meter building remained largely unchanged, a contemporary Baroque ashlar building with a hip roof, profiled eaves cornice, and dormer windows was created in the forms preserved to this day.

Hardly had the renovation been completed when Imhoff sold the property in 1763 to the Wölckern family. In 1845, the Kingdom of Bavaria acquired the residence and established a forest service office in it. Today, the building, extensively restored by the Meisel family, houses a hotel.