Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Hessen

Herborn is a historic town and had its first documentary mention in 1048. It was granted the privilege of a city in 1251 by the Counts of Nassau. The city belonged to the County Nassau-Dillenburg. Herborn's town centre belongs to the best-preserved medieval towns in Germany with about 400 half-timbered houses. Timber from nearby Westerwald was used for their construction. Typical of Herborn (and the region) is the alternation between open half-timbering and slate-clad façades.

The Wilhelmsturm located on a hill above the town, nowadays is Dillenburg’s main landmark. The tower was built between 1872 and 1875 on the former upper courtyard of Dillenburg Castle. That medieval castle was erected in 1130, but destroyed during the Seven Years War in 1760. The castle was the family ancestral seat of the House of Nassau. The Wilhelmsturm is 41 meters high and overlooks the town of Dillenburg. The tower was constructed as a permanent memorial of Willem van Oranje (William of Ornage or William the Silent) who was born in the castle. Nowadays it houses the Orange-Nassau Museum. Willem van Oranje was the leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish occupation during the Eighty Years’ War (1568 -1648), which resulted in the formal independence of the Dutch Republic. Next to the tower stands a monument in honour of Dillenburgs greatest son. This statue of William of Orange was erected to mark the 125th anniversary of the Wilhelmsturm and unveiled in the year 2000 by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

Limburg - developed around a castle from the late 7th century - was first mentioned in documents in the year of 910 as "Lintpurc", when the St. George monastery was founded by Konrad Kurzbold. The town became stone ramparts in the 12th and following centuries. The construction of a new church belonging to St. George monastery started in 1200. Around that time a new castle was built south of the new church. The plague ravaged Limburg in 1344. The town then underwent a steady decline until the early 19th century, when the rise of the Duchy of Nassau (1806-1866) gave a new lease of life to Limburg. In 1827, Limburg became the seat of a diocese and in 1886 it was made district capital. Nowadays Limburg's old town offers a maze of cobble stoned streets, lined with crooked half-timbered houses some dating back to the 13th century, but most of them are ‘just’ from the 17th or 18th century.

The Limburger Dom (Limburg Cathedral) also known as Georgsdom (George's Cathedral> is one of the best preserved late Romanesque style buildings in Germany. It is unknown when the first church was built on a hill above the Lahn river. Archaeological discoveries have revealed traces of a 9th-century church building in the area of the current chapel. It was probably built in Merovingian times as a castle and the chapel added in the early 9th century. In 910 AD, Count Konrad Kurzbold founded a collegiate chapter of 18 canons, who lived on the hilltop site. The original castle chapel was torn down and a three-aisled church was built in its place; its foundations have been found beneath the present floor. The construction of current cathedral is dated to 1180-90. The consecration was performed in 1235 by the archbishop of Trier. Most probably the cathedral was built in four stages. In reference to the seven sacraments, the cathedral also has seven towers. The interior was destroyed by Swedish soldiers during the Thirty Years War (1618-48) and reconstructed in a late Baroque style in 1749. The church became the rank of cathedral in 1827 when the bishopric of Limburg was founded. In- and exterior have been renovated and restored acouple of times; the last renovation was in the 1980s.

Idstein is nestled in the soft rolling hills of the Taunus Mountains. The city - granted city and market rights in 1287 by King Rudolph of Habsburg - dates back at least to the year of 1102, when the name first appeared in a court document, involving Udalrich and Konrad von Etichestein. Count Udalrich was succeeded in Idstein by the counts of Laurenburg, relatives of the archbishop of Mainz, who gave Idstein castle to them. From the middle of the 12th century, the Laurenburg family named themselves after the castle of Nassau. During this period the city became attached to Nassau and remained so until 1866. Besides the former castle complex and the beautiful Union Church ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/47426278 ) Idstein has a mediaeval town centre ( Altstadt ) with about 200 timber framed buildings. The oldest remaining house (Obergasse 2) was originally built around 1410. Many of the houses date from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The two main squares - König-Adolf-Platz (PiP 1) and Marktplatz - and nearby streets are lined with numerous timber framed houses (PiP 3 and 4 ). The most magnificent and richly decorated house is the Killingerhaus (PiP 2, the central house ), built in 1615 by town clerk Johann Conrad Killing. Another remarkable building is the Crooked House (main picture). This Schiefes Haus was built in 1725 as a four storey house. Idstein is part of the German Timber-Frame Road ( Deutsche Fachwerkstraße ), connecting towns with timber framed buildings.

The Union Church ( Unionskirche ) is a protestant parish church in the historic centre of Idstein ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/47438976 ). The church was built from 1330 to 1350 under Gerlach, count of Nassau, when it was founded as collegiate Church of St. Martin. In 1669, it was transformed into a Lutheran sermon and burial church ( Predigt- und Hofkirche ) for the counts and princes of Nassau. The town church became its current name “Union Church” in 1917, hundred years after the union of Lutheran and Reformed Protestants in the Duchy of Nassau, which was the first in Germany. The exterior of the church is simple, but it has an extraordinary interior. The most prominent decorations in the church are the 38 paintings by the Flemish baroque painter Michael Angelo Immenraedt and his assistant. These canvas oil paintings on the ceiling of the nave and the upper part of the walls show biblical scenes and were made from 1673 to 1678. Opulent use of marble from for the arcades, columns, altar, font, pulpit and tombs is another feature of the church. The altar (1676) portrays the “Last Supper” in form of a painting. The crystal chandeliers - originally used in the Kurhaus of Wiesbaden - were fitted in the church in the 19th century. I have seen many, many churches, but this is for sure one of the most beautiful and fascinating ones. I fully understand that this church is well known throughout Germany.

Marktplatz (Market square) in Heppenheim during blue hour with the town hall (l) and half-timbered houses. The town hall (Rathaus) was built in 1561. After the city fire of 1693 the baroque half-timbered Rathaus was rebuilt in 1705/06.

Limburg - developed around a castle from the late 7th century - was first mentioned in documents in the year of 910 as "Lintpurc", when the St. George monastery was founded by Konrad Kurzbold. The town became stone ramparts in the 12th and following centuries. The construction of a new church belonging to St. George monastery started in 1200. Around that time a new castle was built south of the new church. The plague ravaged Limburg in 1344. The town then underwent a steady decline until the early 19th century, when the rise of the Duchy of Nassau (1806-1866) gave a new lease of life to Limburg. In 1827, Limburg became the seat of a diocese and in 1886 it was made district capital. Limburg's old town offers a maze of cobble stoned streets, lined with crooked half-timbered houses some dating back to the 13th century, but most of them are ‘just’ from the 17th or 18th century. The St. George Cathedral is Limburg’s landmark, situated on a little hill, is one of the best examples of late Romanesque architecture in Germany. The church was built between 1200 and 1235, it was elevated to the rank of cathedral in 1827. I took this picture from a parking garage in the city centre with the former town hall in the foreground and the St. Georg Cathedral above the old town in the background.