Burg Hermülheim

Burg Hermülheim stands in Hermülheim, a district of Hürth in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis near Cologne. It was a medieval water-burg divided into two parts, built where the Romans once gathered water from springs near Villerand. The site lay at the junction of early water pipes that fed the Roman colony of Cologne. After the pipes fell into disuse, a mill was built near the castle, giving the place its name. The castle passed from local knights to the Teutonic Order in 1256 in exchange for a farm and rights worth 271 acres of arable land, 50 acres of woodland, 4 acres of vineyard and a fishpond. The Order used it as a summer residence for its commanders until the 18th century. Later owners included a French marshal rewarded by Napoleon and a Cologne merchant who sold it on several times before the von Groote family restored the house in the 19th century. Today only the stone gate arch survives, protected as a monument. The rest of the island was cleared in 1964 after years of neglect. Visitors can still see the wide moat that once surrounded the castle and the low-lying meadows where the old waterworks once stood. The gate arch marks the entrance to the vanished stronghold, a quiet reminder of Hermülheim’s medieval past.