Sturmfeder Manor

The origin of the name "Kellergarten" is unclear. Two explanations are conceivable:

The financial administrator of a winery was formerly called "Keller" (cellar master). The grounds, including the ruins of the "Castle", could have been entrusted to such a "Keller" of the Sturmfeder family for management, with the result that the name "Kellergarten" gradually developed.

It could also be a dialectal abbreviation of "Keltergarten" (wine press garden). The reason for this assumption is the fact that at the time the name originated in the first half of the 18th century, the Eckbach stream flowed not south but west of the complex, directly in front of the (then ruinous) "Castle" from south to north. Since the Sturmfeder family did not have cheap washing facilities for wine barrels at their actual seat, the Sturmfeder Castle in the town center, the uninhabitable building by the Eckbach might have been used as a wine press house, and the associated green area could have thus acquired the name "Keltergarten".

English Garden

Today, the Kellergarten, along with its historic buildings, belongs to the local Catholic Hospital Foundation. This traditional institution – its oldest document dates from 1543 – was already supported by Caspar Lerch's grandfather, who bore the same name. On May 28, 2010, the garden complex, which had been renovated between 2006 and 2009 and restored as faithfully as possible to its original state, was reopened. Originally, it probably looked as Friedrich Schenck, a court councilor, captured it in several watercolors in 1866. The pictures are described as follows:

"In the center of the small, approximately triangular complex is the pond fed by the stream, from which the meadow ground, dotted with isolated trees, spreads out to the south. A resting place projects into the water on a small indentation, screened by trees and bushes. Both the overall complex and the pond are encircled by a circular path, which at some points offers picturesque views between the groves. Sightlines are primarily intended across the meadow area between the lake and the residential house, from the so-called Castle to the residential house, and from the east longitudinally across the lake to the Castle. Groups of trees densify the edges of the garden, frame the staged views, and concentrate at the path intersections and the outer corners. The stream is crossed by small sandstone bridges, which have been preserved to this day. North of the pond, the regular plantings of the vegetable garden mentioned in the original cadastre can be seen. In the distant view depicted by Schenck, the silhouette of the garden is tiered with the carefully distributed and grouped, steeply rising pyramid poplars."

– Georg Peter Karn and Ute-Konstanze Rasp in the local chronicle

"Fencing School" or "Castle"

The "Fencing School" dates back to Caspar Lerch's medieval "Castle", which was a ruin for a long time. After 1841, it was rebuilt as a "garden hall" in a Neo-Gothic influenced Classicist style, as indicated by elements such as the coupled, profiled pointed-arch windows with delicate tracery, the pointed-joint rustication, and the pointed-arch frieze. The pavilion-like building with a hip roof is single-story, raised on a high barrel-vaulted cellar, whose foundations partly still originate from the ruinous predecessor building. The raised ground floor is reached via a double-sided staircase, which is located in front of the northern gable wall and bears a small terrace at the top. The building extends in a north-south direction with the main facade facing west towards Affenstein street, while the rear faces the Kellergarten. Its enclosing wall abuts the main facade from the south. The lintel of an old Renaissance portal, walled into the small terrace in the northwestern area, bears the marital coats of arms of the Lerch-Eltz and Lerch-Brendel families, along with the weathered inscription (which also appears on the north wall of Sturmfeder Castle):

CASPAR LERCH THE THIRD AND DOROTHEA ZV ELTZ SPOUSES CASPAR LERCH THE FOURTH AND MARTHA BRENDELIN SPOUSES

North of the terrace, a classical gate system made of sandstone pillars is attached. The lattice work is ornamented.

Manor House

The simple classical main building of the manor house has a gable roof with the eaves facing the street and is two and a half stories high. It consists of two full floors and an attic with a small round-arch window in the south gable. The cuboid wing lies almost in a north-south direction; the plastered facade with rectangular windows and a console cornice faces west towards Affenstein, the rear towards the Kellergarten. Its enclosing wall abuts the main facade from the north. From the east, a wire fence, separating the property from Bleichstraße, reaches the two-story annex with a hall and greenhouse, which was built at a right angle to the main house around the middle of the 19th century. It features floor and sill courses and has a hip roof.

"Bathhouse"

On today's Bleichstraße stands the equally classical "Countess of Brühl's Bathhouse". Joseph von Camuzi's daughter Henriette (1808–1883) became the second wife of the Prussian Lieutenant General Count Wilhelm Friedrich Karl von Brühl (1788–1867) in 1839 and thus acquired the title of Countess. The bathhouse, which was formerly largely shielded by groves, was created for her as a summer residence in the 1840s. It is now exposed and used as a residential house. The narrow two-story building with a hip roof has a console cornice and round-arch windows, five in longitudinal and only one in transverse direction on each floor; the dark brown sandstone reveals contrast with the light brown plaster. The countess's marble bathtub, formerly sunken into the ground floor of the house, now adorns the front garden like an oversized flowerpot.

The Frankenthal painter and sculptor Walter Perron lived in the house, which his wife had leased, from 1942 to 1952.

"Thick Tree"

The area between the southern tip of the Kellergarten and the Eckbach is occupied by the "Thick Tree", a plane tree over two hundred years old. With a trunk circumference of about 6 m and a height of more than 20 m, the mighty tree is considered a natural monument.

As part of the "72-hour action" for the 50th anniversary of the German Rural Youth Association, the surroundings of the Thick Tree were redesigned in 1999 under the leadership of the Dirmstein Rural Youth, with particular attention to landscape conservation and nature protection aspects. After removing scrub and rubbish, among other things, the hexagonal wooden bench around the Thick Tree was renewed, ten nesting boxes were built, the wooden pedestrian bridge over the Eckbach was renovated, and an approximately 10 m long zip line was built over the water as a play equipment.