Colmdorf Castle (Bayreuth, Germany)
Colmdorf Castle
Colmdorf Castle or Carolinenruhe Castle is located in the Colmdorf district of Bayreuth. The castle faces a large garden. There is no driveway at the back. It is a five-axle building with two three-axle side wings. A balcony with a wrought iron railing and the initials of Sophie Caroline is attached to the main wing.
After the death of Margravine Wilhelmine, Margrave Friedrich acquired it in 1754/55 from the then court building inspector Rudolf Heinrich Richter on behalf of the margravial minister Freiherr von Reitzensteincountry castles built — Colmdorf Castle. It initially served as a gift and country residence for his second wife Sophie Caroline Marie, an educated and attractive princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
Colmdorf Castle or Carolinenruhe, as it is also known, experienced numerous different owners in the years that followed and had a correspondingly checkered history. From 1901 to 1912, Isolde, the eldest daughter of Richard and Cosima Wagner, and her husband Franz Philipp Beidler lived in the palace on Königsallee before it finally fell into a decades-long slumber.
Colmdorf Castle has been perfectly restored and equipped with original furniture since July 2021, as has Birken Castle , a baroque castle museum run by the Rothenbücher family. In addition to valuable inventory from the margrave period, the exquisite stucco work by Adam Rudolph Albini, who also designed the stucco work in the old palace of the Hermitage and in various margrave churches, can now also be admired during guided tours.