Herrenhof, Heritage estate in Mußbach, Germany

Herrenhof is a farm estate of just under one hectare south of the old Johanneskirche in Mußbach, part of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. Its buildings stand within the larger Johanniterviertel monument zone, and the Mußbach stream runs along its southern boundary. The estate is entered from Herrenhofstraße, not from An der Eselshaut, and its southern part is planted with vines of the Mußbacher Johannitergarten site.

The Herrenhof is first documented in three donation charters dated 774, preserved only as copies in the Codex Traditiones Wizenburgenses, so its origins cannot be precisely dated. In 985 it passed to the Salian and Staufen rulers through Otto of Worms's seizure of church property, and in 1290 it came to the Knights Hospitaller as a member of the Heimbach commandery. The wars of the 17th century brought decline: troops devastated Mußbach and the Herrenhof in 1621 during the Thirty Years' War, and in 1689 the War of the Palatine Succession left only the church and parts of the Herrenhof standing.

The name Herrenhof comes from the Knights of St John, who owned the estate from 1290 as a member of their commandery at Heimbach. Each summer the electoral officials were invited here for a feast, a tradition that grew into the Eselshautfest, held on the grounds over two weekends in June and July.

The address An der Eselshaut 18 is misleading: the Johanneskirche stands in front of it, so there is no direct access from that street. Entry is from the east via Herrenhofstraße; Lutwitzistraße marks the western boundary without access. The Mußbach stream runs along the southern edge of the roughly one-hectare farmyard.

The Herrenhof competes with the Staffelter Hof in Kröv for the title of oldest winery in the world, but because the Staffelter Hof's origin is fixed by an original charter of 862, the Herrenhof's 774 documents, surviving only as later copies in the Codex Traditiones Wizenburgenses, leave its founding date uncertain. Its wine-growing is first documented around 1280 in the Codex Edelini.