Herrnsheim Castle

Herrnsheim Castle is a 19th-century castle in the Herrnsheim district of Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Documentary evidence for the construction of a castle complex only exists for the 16th century, when Eberhard von Dalberg, Chamberlain of Worms, had a will attested on January 30, 1557. There is no evidence for a presumed predecessor castle. That a court in Herrnsheim might have stood at the same location can be concluded from a document from the 14th century.

The castle building was probably severely damaged during the Thirty Years' War, as a document from 1635 describes the place as desolate and deserted. The Worms city chamberlain Philipp von Dalberg is said to have erected a fortified building in 1460 as the northern end of the town's fortifications. At the latest in 1689, this building was burned down by French troops during the War of the Palatine Succession. Reconstruction began in 1711. In 1792, the castle suffered great damage when Custine occupied the left bank of the Rhine and conquered Wissembourg, Landau, then Speyer, Worms, and Mainz. From 1808, Emmerich Joseph von Dalberg had it extensively rebuilt in the Empire style, according to plans by Jakob Friedrich Dyckerhoff. Lord Dalberg-Acton sold the property in 1883 to Cornelius Wilhelm von Heyl zu Herrnsheim. Since 1957, the castle has been owned by the city of Worms.

It is presumed that the round tower at the western end of the castle belongs to the oldest structures of the 15th century, but there is no confirmed information for this. Attached to the castle is a 10.5-hectare park in the style of an English landscape garden.