Scheune

Schloss Colmdorf, also known as Schloss Carolinenruhe, stands in the Colmdorf district of Bayreuth in Upper Franconia. The site has a long history, first mentioned in 1386 as Kolbendorf. The wooden predecessor of the present castle was recorded from the mid-16th century and burned down in 1620. In 1662, Margrave Christian Ernst gave the rebuilt property to his wife Erdmuthe Sophie. After a later fire, the current stone building was constructed in 1754–55 by Hofbauinspektor Rudolf Heinrich Richter for Freiherr von Reitzenstein. The castle gained fame when Margrave Friedrich presented it to his second wife, Sophie Caroline Marie, as a summer residence. She gave the estate its alternative name, Carolinenruhe. A small parade ground and carriage shelters were added for her summer guests. The estate passed through several hands after her death in 1763, including a period owned by Johann Friedrich Popp from 1886. From 1901 to 1911, Isolde Beidler, daughter of Richard Wagner, lived there with her family. The five-bay main building faces a large garden and has two three-bay side wings. A wrought-iron balcony on the main wing bears the initials of Sophie Caroline. Two ornate sandstone gateways mark the former approach, one now built into a barn. Nearby stands the Gardehaus, built between 1759 and 1760 by Richter and Carl von Gontard to house the margravial bodyguard. The house, once used as a simple dwelling until 2009, has been stabilised by emergency roof repairs.