Bamberg - Noble Palace Rotenhan

The Noble Palace Rotenhan is a massive three-storey house with a gable roof, a symmetrically articulated Baroque sandstone facade with a central bay, built in 1711-1718 probably according to a design by Johann Dietzenhofer for Joachim Ignaz and Amalia von Rotenhan.

Joachim Ignaz von Rotenhan (6.12.1662 - 19.5.1736) was a provincial judge, chief princely judge and privy councillor in Bamberg, subcommander to the Elector and chief civil servant at Schachtenberg.

The massive sandstone building has three floors and nine axes. The middle three axes protrude minimally from the façade line in the manner of a buttress, but are not emphasised by a gable. The eaves of the gabled roof are continuous. The large ground floor door, which here replaces all three window bays, is framed by a balcony on two columns.

Attached to the right side at the rear is a long side wing of 1911 in similar forms to the main building.

The rear house was enclosed in the first half of the 19th century by the outbuildings of a building then belonging to the estate with the address Kapuzinerstraße 23.

In the central axis of the building, above the first floor window, instead of a triangular pediment, there is a coat of arms stone, perhaps by Balthasar Esterbauer or Daniel Friedrich Humbach. In the centre is a Madonna with a crescent or a Madonna and Child with a protective cloak, at her feet a crescent and a serpent as a symbol of evil, on her head a crown reminiscent of the imperial crown of the empire. To the right and left of the Queen of Heaven, two angels stand sideways in an awkward pose, gazing at Mary's head and holding a laurel wreath and a palm branch respectively. With their outer hands they grasp the outwardly folded coats of arms of the builder and his wife. To the right is the heraldic coat of arms of Joachim Ignaz Heinrich von Rotenhan.

Between 1825 and 1832 the palace was owned by Franz Ludwig von Horntal.

Between 1844 and 1899, the palace served successively as a branch of the Royal Bank of Bavaria, a royal district office, a tax office, a road building office and finally as a state health office.

Since 1999, the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg has been using the representative building as a central administration building.

It houses the "Student Services Centre", which includes a student office in the back building, a student counselling room on the ground floor, an examination office on the first floor, an international office on the second floor and the university archives on the third floor. Other facilities located in the building include the Bamber Centre for Teacher Training, the Teaching Profession Internship Office, the Parent Services Office and the Learning Disability Contact Point.