Wolfgang Uhl Sigmundsgraben 2 95028 Hof Phone.: 0 92 81 / 33 34 Fax: 0 92 81 / 33 41 info@wolfgang-uhl.com Already in his early childhood, Wolfgang Uhl dreamed about castles and ruins. At the age of twelve he had a colored banner from the Bavarian Castle of Lauenstein hanging above his bed. Back then nobody knew that it would take almost 30 years for his dream to come true. In the early 90's his plan to make an old ruin habitable again failed because of authorities. So he kept looking and fought the usual problems: not for sale, to big, to expensive, horrendous maintenance costs or to far away from Hof. “I wanted a small, yet castle-like building with its own history, which I could renovate and where I could exhibit my extensive collection of artifacts from all over the world. In addition it had to accomodate my expedition gear, a work-shop, a big room for meetings. At the same time it still had to be affordable. The main condition however was: The place had to be comfortable all year round and close to my store. So my expectations where evidently quit high", said Wolfgang Uhl. For almost four years he was looking for the ideal place and he finaly found it near the city of Hof. The price negotiations with the previous owner lasted almost one year. At last in Spring of 1999 he bought Newhouse Castle. This castle is actually a medieval palace. To defend the place the walls were build one to two metres thick. The elevation of the building is 640 m and it was build in the years 1427/1428 to replace the 1382 destroyed castle Rodesgrün. The palace was erected by the family "von Reitzenstein", and is now already 575 years old. Throughout the years the owners changed frequently. During the last quarter of the 19th century and in the years from 1910 to 1912 construction work was done to restore and partially change the building, also the entire interior was renewed. Located at the Southeastern corner of the place there is an octagonal tower. The moat, with parts of the exterior wall, was only maintained in the Northeast, the rest of it has been filled in. Newhouse Castle is situated north of the old road from Naila to Hof. It stands high on a rock surrounded by trees.   Look around