Wiesenfeld Castle

The former Wiesenfeld manor is located in the village of Wiesenfeld near Coburg, a district of Meeder in the Coburg district of the Upper Franconia administrative region in Bavaria. The manor dates back to the 13th century and, despite several changes of ownership, remains largely unaltered.

Eight kilometers northwest of Coburg, a wide, fertile plain, originally marshland, stretches between the Langen Berge to the north and the Callenberger Forst to the south. The village of Meeder is located in the geographical center of the plain. Two kilometers south of Meeder lies its district Wiesenfeld on State Road 2205 from Coburg to Bad Rodach. The former manor is located in the center of the village on Lindenstraße.

The village of Wiesenfeld was first mentioned in a document in 1231. The manor, as the core of the village, must have already existed at that time. The estate was explicitly mentioned in 1688 when Duke Albrecht of Saxe-Coburg transferred it to Baron von Born, who, as a Privy Councillor, was already the owner of the neighboring Moggenbrunn Castle.

After Born's death in 1694, his heir sold it to Johann Christian Gärtner from Gestungshausen. Just three years later, it came into the possession of the Coburg and Hessian Privy Councillor Johann Caspar Scheres, who named himself Scheres-Zieritz after his birthplace Zieritz. Scheres-Zieritz, Chancellor to Duke Albrecht, resided at the manor until his death in 1704.

Scheres endowed his Wiesenfeld residence for the old-age provision of poor men. The Scheres-Zieritz Foundation has been managed by the Coburg State Foundation since 1921. The benefactor bequeathed Scheres' extensive library to the princely government in Coburg.