For our last full day in the area this time around, H and I visited a pair of nearby palaces in Schloss Weiรenstein in Pommersfelden, a Baroque three-winged complex built for the counts of Schรถnborn as the summer Residenz of the Prince-Bishop electors, delegates who represented the interests of the imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire.
Whilst the commission, Lothar Franz, future archbishop, had inherited a medieval moated castle in the vicinity—described as “robbers’ den”—he felt those confines did not suit the grandeur of his office and an ongoing feudal territory dispute between Bamberg and Bayreuth split the property was a major distraction, undertaking design for the project with architect Johann Dientzenthofer personally for a palace and grounds that would rival the construction’s imprint in Versailles.
Contemporary peers upon visiting the palace had some critical impressions about its portions and planning and surplus of golden embellishments, and although tours can be arranged, the property remains in the hands of the Schรถnborn family. We were nonetheless impressed by the courtyard and roosting storks that made their clapping noises as we had the place essentially all to ourselves. We explored the extensive enclosed gardens, an artificial deer-run with a colony (Wilddam) still living there and a protective habitat for frogs. We were a bit hesitant to take the dog but she failed to see the deer resting in the shade of a tree. Afterwards we revisited Schloss Seehof (see previously) in Mememelsdorf, another Baroque retreat, more modest and based off the quadrilateral Johannisburg of Aschaffenburg by Balthasar Neumann but also with the input of Lothar Franz for later landscaping.
