St. Georgen Castle

The Order Castle St. Georgen is a castle complex in St. Georgen, a district of Bayreuth.

As hereditary prince of the Principality of Bayreuth, Georg Wilhelm from the House of the Franconian Hohenzollern founded the suburb of St. Georgen am See. Streets with representative buildings were created in strict Baroque symmetry.

At the Order Castle St. Georgen, the knights of the Order de la Sincérité met on St. George's Day and at other festivities.

The first castle existed only from 1701 to 1724. After it became dilapidated, it was demolished. The short lifespan was probably due to the rapid construction time and the high proportion of wood used instead of the more suitable solid stone constructions. The successor building, which fits into the side wings of the previous building, was started immediately after the demolition of the previous substance and completed in 1727. Builder Georg Wilhelm did not live to see its completion; he died in 1726.

Until the end of the era of the margraves, the Order Castle was a pleasure palace and the venue for many large events.

One of the main attractions was the Brandenburger Weiher (Brandenburg Pond). This was originally created for fish farming and was used for staging lake plays as part of the representative redesign. Between 1695 and 1722, six larger sailing ships were built. They were luxuriously equipped and crews were ready for their entertainment. The pond was decommissioned in 1775; today, only street names and terrain differences in the course of the street commemorate it.

Today, the castle is part of the JVA St. Georgen-Bayreuth (St. Georgen-Bayreuth Correctional Facility). A visit to the elaborately restored Order Hall is therefore only possible in exceptional cases.