Schloss Pfaffendorf

Schloss Pfaffendorf stands in the village of Pfaffendorf, part of Maroldsweisach in Lower Franconia. It is a plain three-winged Baroque building in the heart of the village. The former noble residence became a boarding school run by the Salesians of Don Bosco in 1954. The castle was built in the early 18th century after the Stein family left their nearby Altenstein castle. The Dientzenhofer family designed it, while Michael Küchel, a pupil of Balthasar Neumann, supervised construction. Christian Adam Ludwig von Stein completed the work in 1763. The building has two rows of delicate oriels above its steep hipped roof. An English park with lawns, shrubs, tall firs and ancient linden trees surrounds the castle. After the Steins lost ownership in 1875, the estate passed through several noble families before the English Ladies acquired it during the Great Depression. Inside, the two-storey building opens onto a northern courtyard, though the main entrance is on the south side, reached by a raised terrace with balustrades. Simple corner pilasters, a string course and window openings divide the plain façade. Inside, corridors run along the courtyard side. The staircase in the east wing still has its elegant shell-work railing. Some upstairs rooms retain fine stucco decoration, a few rococo doors and cast-iron stoves. The Salesians later altered much of the interior and removed all outbuildings in the 1970s. They replaced them with modern buildings in the park where more than a hundred boys receive educational support.