Manor Pillenreuth

On a 1609 view of Pillenreuth Monastery, a well-preserved, massive two-story building can be seen at the very edge of the monastery grounds, referred to in literature as the former Prioress's House of the monastery founded in 1345. This is said to have been the seat of the Prioress, the monastery library, and the Scriptorium (writing room), allegedly built in the early 15th century.

After the severe damage to the monastery in the Second Margrave War in 1552, the Prioress's House remained unused and exposed to wind and weather for several decades, as the nuns no longer left their refuge in the Nuremberg Klarakloster. When Johann Georg Gwandschneider acquired the monastery's economic farm in 1604, he was allowed "to roof the vaulted cellars". This news most likely refers to the former "Prioress's House", which, according to a description from around 1650, explicitly featured "beautiful vaulted" cellars. Specifically, the audacity with which Gwandschneider disregarded the terms of use and converted the building with its cellars into a manor house prompted the council to take energetic measures in 1607. In this context, the council summarily blocked the inner monastery area and expressly forbade its use as a manor house. As late as 1616, Gwandschneider's heirs were prohibited from using the building.

In the further course of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Prioress's House (including the other buildings on the eastern side of the monastery courtyard) was left to the respective administrator of the Klarenamt, which managed the estates of both monasteries. The use of the buildings was expressly part of his salary. Shortly after the Kingdom of Bavaria took possession of the Imperial City of Nuremberg in 1806, the manor house, "two-story massive of stone", was sold to private individuals by the new foundation administration as a "useless and costly" building. In 1813, it was owned by Adam Lohbauer, who sold it to Johann Rühl in 1817 for 2,000 guilders. From him, it passed to the Meßthaler family in 1862 (until 1886), who established an inn. It continues to exist as the "Zum Klösterle" inn to this day, although the monument, as well as the neighboring remains of the monastery courtyard, have been completely disfigured in a remarkably insensitive manner by additions and alterations in the late 20th century.