History of the

CASTLE

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

“Hammerherrenschloss Theuern”, the stately home belonging to the owner of the hammer mill, is now the centrepiece of the “Bergbau- und Industriemuseum Ostbayern” (mining and industry museum of East Bavaria). The cornerstone for this late baroque maanor was laid on 25 August 1780. The “Jägerhaus” (hunting lodge), which had already been built by Johann Georg Portner in 1682, was integrated into the new building.

The Electoral master builder Wolfgang Diller from Amberg was recruited to build the manor house. Several farm buildings (cattle stalls and barns) had already been built back in the 1770s, so that the complex consisted of four wings around an enclosed courtyard. Inside the castle, next to the staircase with richly carved railings, the original interior decoration has been preserved in a “salon” on the first floor boasting carved rococo doors. The late baroque construction and rococo décor reveal a style that was actually no longer modern at the time. In 1780 – nine years before the French Revolution –, stately homes in other places were more wont to be modelled in the style of Classical architecture.

Theuern museum

In 1972, the district of Amberg-Sulzbach created the national “Bergbau- und Industriemuseum” in Theuern.

 

The most important task of the museum is to research, document and display the mining and industry that prevailed throughout the region of East Bavaria.

 

The “Bergbau- und Industriemuseum” is located in the manor, which was built in 1781. In addition, industrial monuments typical of the region were transferred to Theuern: an iron-headed hammer mill, a glass grinding and polishing plant, which has also provided a home for the “Strommuseum Ostbayern” (East Bavarian electricity museum) since 1996, and a headframe with a winding engine house.

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