Patrician Manor of the Tucher Family, Baroque Garden
Today’s manor house was created in 1590/1591. It was one of three Patrician manors in Feucht. Herdegen IV Tucher purchased the original estate, the homestead of a “Zeidler” (apiarist), and turned it into a manor. The acquired real estate contained the farmstead of Konrad Wolff. It was sold to Tucher under the condition that the property must not be re-sold and the farm will be able to continue its work. The respective owner of the estate was obliged to bequeath it to the next member of the older line of the family for lifetime. The manor house served at first as retreat for the Tucher family.
The property included a tenant’s house. The tenant was a fowler, who caught birds in traps or nets for sale, or trained birds of prey for falconry. Another tenant’s house with attached stables was located next to the road and belonged also to the estate.
A large and a smaller garden with summerhouse and garden house and a number of fields were part of it as well. The elaborate “Lustgärtlein” (pleasure garden) provided for a beautiful frame for the summer visits of the Tucher family. Herdegen IV Tucher died in 1614 childless and left his property to the next family member of the older line, as stipulated before.
Between 1626 and 1634, during the Thirty Years’ War, the manor house was often used as quarters for soldiers and suffered considerable damages. During the 18th century the pleasure garden was re-designed and turned into a baroque garden. The typical turrets on the four corners of the house were removed during the 19th century. The last owner of the Tucher family was Jakob Gottlieb Friedrich Freiherr von Tucher, who had obviously lived a life beyond his means. After his death 1833, the entire estate was put up for public sale. Since then the manor house had experienced many changes of ownership and served as tavern. In 1990, the architect Fred Brunner bought it together with Gustav Dürler, his business partner at that time, and the Swiss merchant Ruedi Kautz. They restored the dilapidated house with great effort and attention to historical detail. The four turrets were reconstructed. The garden house and the summerhouse exist until today and the artfully recreated baroque garden with its beech-hedges, box trees and benches became a true gem.
