Neckarsteinach Travel Guide
A detailed destination guide for your next Germany vacation
Neckarsteinach Overview
The four-castle town of Neckarsteinach lies on the Neckar in the Bergstraße district in the southernmost part of Hesse, Germany, 15 km east of Heidelberg (Heidelberg vacation rentals | Heidelberg travel guide). Neckarsteinach’s core lies southeast of and below the Vorderburg – one of four castles in town – and beginning in the 14th century it and the castle were girded by the same wall with the current town centre serving as the castle hamlet. The community was bordered in the north and east by the river Steinach (Steinach vacation rentals | Steinach travel guide), in the south by the Neckar and in the west by the Burgberg.
Both by way of transport and culture, Neckarsteinach’s location in the Neckar valley more tightly links it with the North Baden area around Heidelberg than with the rest of Hesse. It is furthermore one of the municipalities belonging, like the ones in the surrounding districts, to the Rhine Neckar Area.
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Things to See in Neckasteinach
Neckarsteinach’s foremost sights are its four castles, which stand on crags or the slope leading down to the Neckar. They are the Vorderburg (“Fore-castle” or “Further Castle”), the Mittelburg (“Middle Castle”), the Hinterburg (“Hind-castle” or “Hinder Castle”) and the Schadeck (also called the Schwalbennest, or “Swallows’ Nest”). The castles were built between 1100 and 1230 by the Landschad von Steinach (Steinach vacation rentals | Steinach travel guide) family, partly as a Worms (Worms vacation rentals | Worms travel guide) or Speyer (Speyer vacation rentals | Speyer travel guide) fief, partly as an allodial holding.The Neckarsteinach Evangelical Church goes back to the town’s original church and was newly built in 1483 in the Late Gothic style by Blicker XIV Landschad von Steinach. The church was reformed in the early 16th century, but then from 1662 to 1908 it was used as an interdenominational church for up to three denominations. Among the church’s most important art treasures are many epitaphs of the Landschad von Steinach family and replicas of the stained glass windows from 1483.
The Catholic Herz-Jesu-Kirche (“Jesus’s Heart Church”) was built in Neo-Baroque style between 1906 and 1908 by Prof. Friedrich Pützer. The main altar from 1750 shows Saint Stephen in the middle and came originally from Saint Stephen’s Church (Catholic) in Mainz-Gonsenheim. The side altars were originally in the church now used as an Evangelical church, but formerly as an interdenominational church before the Catholic church was built, and date from 1711.
The town hall was built in 1861 and 1862 on the same site as the old one from the 16th century which had burnt down. The first town hall, from the 14th century, is believed to have stood elsewhere.
Neckarsteinach has a wealth of historic buildings. Besides remains of the town wall from the 14th century, the mediaeval Bliggergasse (lane) can be named, as can the timber-frame house Ambtmann, the old synagogue on Hirschgasse and the historic timber-frame ensemble on Kirchenstraße. The lower town has been flooded many times, witnessing which are the high-water marks that can be seen on Hirschgasse. The highest flood came in 1824; the latest in 1993.
In the outlying centre of Darsberg is found the historic Sebastianskapelle (“Sebastian’s chapel”).
Nibelungen-Park, remodelled in 1998 with sandstone sculptures by sculptor Paul August Wagner from the Seckach (Seckach vacation rentals | Seckach travel guide) Sculpture Park.
[ source: wikipedia ]
Maps and Driving Directions to Neckarsteinach
Neckarsteinach lies mainly on the Neckar’s north bank along the B 37 and the Neckartalbahn (railway) and is Hesse’s and the Bergstraße district’s southernmost town, 15 km east of Heidelberg. Along the former railway spur line to Schönau, a further population centre was built to the northwest, that is to say, behind the Burgberg (“Castle Mountain”). In the east of town lies a smaller industrial area, a shipyard that arose out of shipbuilding, south of the B 37 on the Neckar marsh.
Altstadt
[ source: Wikipedia]
Related Sites
We collected some useful links related to Neckarsteinach. If you know a few more sites not listed here, or also know some insider tips or point of interests for this destination? Please share and submit your Germany travel tip. If approved it will be shown on this page!
- Homepage of Neckarsteinach: Neckarsteinach (official home page)
- Wikipedia: Neckarsteinach
More about the History of Neckarsteinach
In the 14th century, the town was surrounded with defensive walls by the Landschad family of Steinach (Steinach vacation rentals | Steinach travel guide), turning the Vorderburg (one of the castles) and the town together into an enclosed fortification. Nevertheless, the town itself was only half owned by the keepers of the Vorderburg, while those of the Hinterburg (another of the castles) owned the other half. In 1377, Neckarsteinach was mentioned as a town for the first time, and at the same time it became an “open house” of Count Palatine Ruprecht, who could then use it in case of a feud against anyone other than the Bishop of Worms (Worms vacation rentals | Worms travel guide) as though he were the town’s fiefholder. In 1381 the first town hall was built, and in the early 15th century, Neckarsteinach received a town charter, which in the years that followed was changed and expanded. The oldest preserved town charter dates from 1537.
In 1699, ownership of Neckarsteinach passed by matrilineal inheritance to Caspar Hugo von Metternich zu Müllenark. His heirs later pledged the ownership of Neckarsteinach in 1738 to the baronial von Hundheim heirs, who were likewise set up as local lords once it became clear that the Metternichs could no longer redeem their pledge. Each lord then hired his own Schultheiß (roughly, “sheriff”), resulting in bitter quarrels, not only between the lords, but also among the townsfolk, over just who was in charge. Only in 1750 did Hugo Franz Wolfgang Metternich manage to allay the town’s concerns by uniting lordly authority in himself. He, however, died only four years later, whereupon both Electoral Palatinate and the Bishopric of Worms laid claim to the town, each taking palpable measures to ensure its claim. The town passed first to Electoral Palatinate, though through Imperial mandate it was given to the monasteries at Worms and Speyer (Speyer vacation rentals | Speyer travel guide) in 1763. With mediatization in 1803, Neckarsteinach became part of Hesse.
[ source: wikipedia ]
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