Brünninghausen Castle

The gatehouse of the moated castle, built in 1861 and now called Torhaus Rombergpark, was severely damaged in the Second World War and restored from 1957 to 1959 under the direction of engineers Bernhard von Glisczynski and F. H. Sonnenschein. Since 1968, it has been used as a municipal art gallery with changing exhibitions and concert events. So-called ambience weddings are also possible there. It is located at the northern entrance of the Rombergpark. The Brünninghausen Gatehouse is registered as a monument in the list of monuments of the city of Dortmund.

Further preserved evidence of the castle are parts of the castle moat and the now dilapidated ice cellar, which served to cool wine and food.

Until 2002, the Rombergpark Hotel was located on the grounds of the former castle. Adjacent was the wihoga business school for the hotel and catering industry, which moved into a new domicile in an opposite new building in 2007. The prefabricated buildings of the Rombergpark Hotel and the wihoga were demolished in 2008. A final decision on the subsequent use of the site, which also includes the former farmstead of Brünninghausen Castle, has not yet been made; most recently there were plans for a medical facility. At the end of 2012, construction work will begin on a pedestrian bridge to the nearby Phoenix-West development area.

A citizens' initiative is campaigning for the preservation of the farmstead. The approximately 200-year-old buildings built by Romberg are not listed as monuments and can only be preserved if an investor is found. The farmstead – also called Gut Brünninghausen – housed, among other things, a brewery where beer was brewed for the Rombergs' own consumption.

On March 4, 2011, a vacant farm building, presumably the last original preserved part of the former manor house apart from the gatehouse, burned down.

During work to redesign the Schondelle stream in October 2011, walls of a structure with a floor plan of 6 m x 6 m were discovered behind the gatehouse, presumably those of a castle tower from the 16th or 14th century and a shield wall adjoining to the west, which can be seen in old depictions, such as an illustration from 1894, and suggest the remains of an even older castle complex in this area. Since December 15, 2011, the walls have been uncovered. A final assessment of whether the find is worth preserving is still pending. If it is to be preserved, the plans for the renaturation of the Schondelle must be amended, as the planned stream bed runs through the excavation area.