Reinhartshausen Castle (Erbach)

Schloss Reinhartshausen is a castle in the Hessian Rheingau, located on the western edge of Erbach (Rheingau), separated from the Rhine bank only by federal highway 42.

Originally, from 1189 to 1275, the ancestral seat of the Knights of Erbach was located on the site of the present castle. Afterwards, the estate belonged to the Knights of Allendorf for about four centuries, who passed it on to the Langwerth von Simmern family in 1797.

In 1801, the knight's seat was demolished and the castle was built in its current form by Clemens August von Westphalen.

Marianne of Prussia, born Princess of the Netherlands, daughter of King William I of the Netherlands, acquired the estate in 1855 after separating from her husband due to an affair. This unusual and in many respects unconventional and progressively thinking woman made Reinhartshausen a cultural attraction on the Rhine. Princess Marianne owned a collection of over 600 paintings, which were housed in a specially furnished museum, today's ballrooms. A part of Princess Marianne's collection is still in the castle today.

The castle always hosted numerous guests and offered young artists accommodation and space for their development. In 1861, Marianne of Prussia donated 60,000 guilders and a plot of land to the people of Erbach in memory of her deceased son Johannes for the construction of today's Protestant Church in Erbach.

In 1902, the Rhine flood plain in front of the estate was renamed "Mariannenaue" in honor of Princess Marianne.