Birkenau Castle

Birkenau Castle is a late Baroque castle in the town of Birkenau in the Weschnitz valley near Weinheim. It is a rather simply structured, yet impressive two-story building with an adjoining castle park.

Construction began in 1765 on behalf of Baron Wambolt von Umstadt by the Speyer court architect Johann Leonhard Stahl in the immediate vicinity of a predecessor building. The castle was finally completed by the Palatine court architect Franz Wilhelm Rabaliatti by 1779 (according to other sources, as early as 1771 or 1772). Renovations took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The castle garden, originally designed (from 1767) in the French style, was redesigned from 1787 according to plans by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell into an English-style landscape garden. The construction of the connecting road from Weinheim to Fürth, later the B 38, in 1847 (according to other sources, between 1840 and 1843) cut the original castle park into two parts.

Traces of the predecessor building or buildings (probably a moated castle and/or a water castle) are no longer visible.

The castle is privately owned by the Wamboldt von Umstadt family. Since 2010, it has been marketed as an event venue for weddings, seminars, presentations, and celebrations.