Ilmbach Castle

Ilmbach is a secluded hermitage on the western edge of the Steigerwald. It lies on a hill 325 meters above sea level. At the census on May 25, 1987, six inhabitants in two residential buildings were recorded.

On old maps (from 1853), the Ilmbacher Mühle (on the Saugraben) is marked about 200 meters north of Ilmbach. However, nothing is visible here on current satellite images. The isolated farmstead Fallmeister, located another 250 meters further north-northwest, is already in the northern neighboring district of Kirchschönbach (Fallmeister = knacker). It is no longer named as a separate individual settlement on current maps.

The hermitage, belonging to Prichsenstadt, became known for its particularly charming location and for the hunting lodge built in the 19th century, which is owned by the Schönborn counts of Wiesentheid.

The Rüdern Wildlife Park, also in comital possession, is located in the immediate vicinity of Ilmbach and is a popular excursion destination and local recreation area.

In 1454, Magdalena von Vestenberg and her husband Knight Balthasar von Berg founded the Ilmbach Monastery, a Carthusian monastery, in Ilmbach. It was destroyed in the Peasants' War in 1525, but only finally dissolved in 1803.

The Count of Schönborn bought the village of Ilmbach and the neighboring Rüdern, and in 1800 the dissolution of the villages began. Finally, in 1870, the formally still existing municipality of Rüdern with the districts of Rüdern and Ilmbach was incorporated into the northern neighboring municipality of Kirchschönbach, which in turn (along with nine other municipalities) was incorporated into Prichsenstadt in 1972 as part of the territorial reform in Bavaria. Rüdern still exists as one of the eleven districts of Prichsenstadt, whose extent corresponds to the former municipalities.