Kaiserhammer Castle

The history of Kaiserhammer Castle began in the 16th century, when the Selber Forest was a popular hunting ground for the Margraves of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. Initially, hunting parties used a hunting lodge in Selb, which Margrave Georg Friedrich had built around 1580 in place of a moated castle. In 1701, Margrave Christian Ernst commissioned the Italian architect Antonio Porta to build a wooden hunting lodge near Kaiserhammer. Margrave Friedrich had the dilapidated building renovated and expanded by Johann Friedrich Graël in 1737. In 1755, the decision was made for a new building, and under the direction of Carl Gontard, an imposing, three-winged castle was built between 1756 and 1757. The interior, on which numerous craftsmen worked, was completed by 1760. A comedy house and a parforce hunting garden with star-shaped clearings and a hunting pavilion were added in 1761. Another salon on the Tannenberg, begun in 1762, remained unfinished after the death of Margrave Friedrich in 1763.