Schloss

Schloss Elfershausen stands in the small market town of Elfershausen in Lower Franconia. Its origins go back to a 16th-century predecessor built by Christoph Heinrich von Erthal. In 1747 Philipp Christoph von und zu Erthal planned a grand new residence in French classical style, but he died the next year and only the steward’s house was completed. Today the main building houses the local town hall, while four older wings survive as former farm and service buildings. The site is worth visiting for its layered history and the names behind it. The Erthal family shaped the place across centuries, and the architect Joseph Greissing designed the surviving wings around 1705. The entrance still bears the original Erthal coat of arms, and the inscription above the gateway records the year 1705. After the Erthals died out in 1805, the Coudenhove family inherited the estate, and later owners included Jewish families before it passed into public hands. A visitor finds the steward’s house now serving as the town hall, its modest façade marking the spot where a grander palace was once planned. The adjoining wings form a quiet courtyard with a classical gabled gateway, their sturdy roofs and stonework showing Greissing’s hand. The coat of arms above the entrance and the inscription over the arch give clues to the estate’s past. The whole complex sits at the heart of the small market town, its quiet presence a reminder of the ambitions and changes that shaped this corner of Franconia.