Münzmeisterhaus Coburg

The Münzmeisterhaus stands in Coburg’s old town, a three-storey Gothic timber-framed dwelling built in 1444 for the mint master known as ‘von Rosenau’. It was one of the first of its kind in the city and still shows the original storeyed construction. The front wall along Ketschengasse is twenty-two metres long, built of solid sandstone blocks with six pointed arches at ground level. A central passage leads through to the inner courtyard, while a second archway opens toward Neugasse. After serving as the Alexandrinenschule from 1854 to 1901, the house became shops on the ground floor and flats above. By 2008 the upper floors housed medical practices and three attic apartments. The timber façade projects slightly on the two upper storeys, divided into ten window bays with decorative brackets beneath each storey. Inside, thirty longitudinal ceiling beams span six fields, supported by ties and walls, while the cellar retains a medieval barrel vault and a round-arched doorway. Behind the main building lies a narrow courtyard with four window axes and a rear house along Neugasse. This four-storey structure has a heavy ground floor with two large round arches for garages and a three-storey timber front that juts forward, housing a single apartment. The steep roof, about forty-eight degrees, once carried small dormers but now holds two wider dormers added in the 18th century. A modern staircase and lift were inserted in the 20th century, and beneath 1957 plaster a set of grisaille paintings showing the seven virtues was uncovered and later moved to the Casimirianum’s assembly hall.