Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis

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.