Manor and hammer mill

There are records of a “von Theuern” family dating back to the end of the 11th century. The first time a manor house is mentioned is in a source dating from 1482.

There does not seem to have been a hammer mill in Theuern until the end of the 15th century either, because Theuern was not part of the Great Hammer Union of 1387, an agreement signed by the towns of Amberg and Sulzbach to regulate the mining, iron smelting and iron trading interests. At the start of the 16th century, the Portner family purchased the manor and the hammer mill, which then passed to the von Lochner zu Hüttenbach family in the early 18th century. The hammer mill – a workshop for iron smelting and/or ironwork – stood outside the Schloss complex on the River Vils.

In the mid-18th century, Joseph Christian von Lochner (1714–1789) rose to the positions of Court Counsellor and Senior Civil Servant to the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Friedrich Carl von Schönborn, moving on to become the Würzburg Steward in 1746 and Privy Counsellor in 1757. Starting in 1780, he had Theuern castle built for his son Christian Ferdinand, Chamberlain to the Electorate of Bavaria and Privy Counsellor to Würzburg. The construction of the estate cost the enormous sum of 20,000 guilders. This was a great strain on both the lord of the manor and his subjects, who were bound to servitude.