Schloss

Schloss Steinenhausen is a Baroque palace near Melkendorf, a district of Kulmbach in Upper Franconia. It stands where the Red Main and White Main rivers meet, with the Main beginning just beyond the palace grounds. The building has belonged to a branch of the Guttenberg barons for centuries. The palace’s history begins in 1439 when Rüdiger Henlein and his brothers received the site as a fief. Bernhard von Guttenberg likely started construction in 1481, and Moritz von Guttenberg added a new private chamber in 1512, marked by an alliance coat of arms above the main door. His brothers Heinrich IV and Bernhard helped rebuild the palace after earlier damage. The Guttenberg family sold it in 1935, and later uses included a Nazi-run training college, a maternity home, and an old people’s home before the state took it over in 1987. Today the palace houses the Kulmbach branch of the Bavarian Environment Agency. Inside and out, it has been carefully restored. The riverside setting and the palace’s refined Baroque lines give it a quiet dignity, while the surrounding landscape opens onto the valley where the Main begins.