Esterau
The Esterau is a landscape in northern Rhineland-Palatinate around the municipality of Holzappel in the Rhein-Lahn district .
history
The Esterau landscape was first mentioned in a document around 950 AD. It was one of the first possessions of the House of Nassau and was subordinate to the Nassau Counts in the 11th and 12th centuries, whose ancestral seat was Laurenburg .
In 1643 the Esterau came into the possession of Peter Melander von Holzappel , General of the Imperial Army during the Thirty Years' War . Emperor Ferdinand III. elevated the small rulership to the imperial county of Holzappel .
Today the term Esterau describes the region around Holzappel, which is made up of eleven independent communities.