Old Manor Pillenreuth

In 1345, the Nuremberg grand merchant and imperial bailiff Konrad Groß founded a monastery in Pillenreuth for the daughters of leading Nuremberg families. After modest beginnings, an extensive monastic district emerged, secured by a wide, water-filled moat and a wall, which was divided by an inner wall into the actual monastery (with church, chapel, prioress's and nuns' houses) and an adjacent farmstead with a bailiff's house and various agricultural buildings.

Possibly on the site of the bailiff's house, which stands at the highest point of the monastery grounds, once stood the seat of the ministerial family of Fischbecken, in whose rooms the nuns initially gathered for worship. At the former bailiff's house, a 12-meter deep well, elaborately built from sandstone, can still be found today. In the course of renovation measures between 1985 and 1987, mighty sandstone foundations belonging to a larger predecessor building were also uncovered in this area.

During the Second Margrave War, Pillenreuth Monastery was also destroyed by margravial troops in 1552. While the nuns remained behind the secure walls of Nuremberg in the Klarakloster and never reoccupied the monastery, according to recent dendrochronological investigations, the reconstruction of the farmstead began as early as 1552.

After the final transfer of the monastic estates to the city of Nuremberg in 1591 and the dissolution of the Klarakloster in 1596, the city established the so-called Klarenamt, under the direction of its own administrator, to manage the manorial rights over the monastic estates. The monastery's farmstead was acquired as early as 1592 by the farmer Konrad Lämmermann, "who had previously served in the monastery courtyard." He was succeeded in 1604 by Johann (Hans) Georg Gwandschneider, owner of a significant trading house at the end of the 16th century. Gwandschneider sought at that time to form as cohesive a manorial estate as possible from his properties in Weiherhaus and nearby Pillenreuth. The former Pillenreuth Monastery was to be its center, for which he "built much in such a courtyard without permission" – also at the bailiff's house, as an inscription proclaims – which caused him much trouble with the imperial city authorities.

As early as 1607, the Nuremberg Council felt compelled to intervene in view of the unauthorized constructions. To demonstrate the city's legal claims externally, it had the most important monastery buildings cordoned off and marked with the imperial city's coat of arms. Gwandschneider was only allowed to use the farm buildings – namely "sheds, barns, cattle houses and stables" – as he only had a farm "and nothing more," especially no manor house, into which he had converted the former prioress's house.

After the merchant's death, the estate fell to his widow in 1609, who divided the farm and only partially managed it herself. In 1619, her son Christoph took over the farm, and in 1628, the candlemaker Hans Puchner. Puchner was followed in 1642 by Hans Heinrich Bayer, who, however, soon died heavily indebted, so the Nuremberg Council sought a more solvent buyer. Several noble emigrants from Austria, including Otto Friedrich Freiherr von Herberstein, who had already leased the farm in 1643, were not approved. In 1657, Georg Michel, a wealthy merchant in Nuremberg, appeared as the new owner of the monastic estate. He had the monastery walls and moats, which had partly fallen into disrepair since the dissolution of the monastery and partly been damaged by the consequences of the Thirty Years' War, restored at an alleged cost of 3,000 guilders. We also owe to this builder a first detailed description of the monastery, its history, and its buildings, which he valued at 14,000 guilders.

Michel also renovated the old bailiff's house, which housed living quarters for the servants on the ground floor and the residence of the lord of the manor and the administrator on the upper floor, so that the designation "Old Manor Seat" gradually became common. The building, with a solid ground floor and a half-timbered upper floor, has changed little since then. Only by Gwandschneider or one of his successors was a roof turret with a large striking clock erected on the roof, whose chimes the farmers could "hear striking everywhere in the field." In the second half of the 17th century, a large barn was added, after the manor house had been divided into two separate halves around 1650 by the installation of a party wall.

Michel's heirs sold the former farmstead in 1681 to the Zwingel farming family from Herpersdorf, who divided it. The eastern single-story wing was converted into a dwelling and came to the Pommer family in 1764 ("Pommerhof"); the western, two-story part went to the Kolb family in 1784 ("Kolbenhof"). After the incorporation of Worzeldorf into the Nuremberg city area, the former monastery grounds were built over with single-family houses after 1972. The demolition of the "Old Manor Seat" was prevented in 1978 by the Boesch family, who were honored in 1992 by the Nuremberg Altstadtfreunde for their commitment and for the exemplary renovation of the building.