Chicken Church
The chicken church is a listed estate with an integrated restaurant in the Hünstetten Taunus community in Hesse . At this point in the 16./17. Century a church to which the name is derived. It is known that Tsar Alexander II of Russia and members of the Romanian royal family stayed here as guests .
Geographical location
The chicken church is located in the middle between the cities of Limburg and Mainz , which were particularly important in the Middle Ages, in the municipality of Hünstetten. To the west, the terrain slopes down to the Limbach district , which it belongs to, and east-northeast to the Wallbach district . The estate at the intersection of federal road 417 , there called Hühnerstrasse , and state road 3275 is about one kilometer away from the center of both villages . It is located about 800 m south of the Hühnerberg ( 410.4 m above sea level ) at about 375 m above sea level. NN .
description
The chicken church is a four-sided closed courtyard . The manor house from 1775 in the north is made of quarry stone masonry . Only the gable area is designed with half-timbering . The plastered building has a hipped roof and is of a hood roof rider dominated.
history
Numerous barrows in the forest district of Amtsmannsheck on the Hühnerberg point to the early settlement of the area around the chicken church. Only with the foundation of the Bleidenstadt Benedictine monastery at the end of the 8th century can it be assumed that the Christian faith spread in the area.
In 1515 a chapel "Our dear women" on the "Honerberg" is mentioned for the first time, which was the destination of pilgrimages. It is unclear today why there was a chapel here. It is assumed that there was already a settlement at this point, for example in the form of an estate or a settlement, which the district designation Eichelshausen indicates for a parcel to the north. It could also have served as a small church for the abandoned places Freienrod and Breitenscheid (probably south in the border area of the communities Strinz-Trinitatis , Görsroth , Oberlibbach and Kesselbach ). In 1525, the sovereign, Count Philip II of Nassau, donated money to build a new chapel.
Until the Reformation in the middle of the 16th century, the church belonged to the parish of Strinz-Trinitatis, after 1546 the church remained unused and fell into disrepair. In 1568, at the request of Count Johann , Emperor Maximilian II allowed a fair to be held. Up to three markets were held annually, moved to Limbach in 1654 and back to the Hühnerkirche in 1782.
During the Thirty Years War , particularly in 1634, the church was badly damaged. In 1655, building materials from the church ruins were sold to the Walsdorf community, where they were used to build the church there. Some of the material was also used in the construction of Idstein Castle . Further material ended up in 1668 when the Idstein Union Church was being expanded . The bell from the 15th century was briefly attached to the witch's tower in Idstein.
For the middle of the 18th century, the first plans to use the still existing, dilapidated outer walls of the old church as a post office are known. Around 1770, however, the remains of the wall were torn down. In 1778, the captain of the Nassau state militia, Ambrosius Antoni, took over the building that had been completed the year before as a post office. The post office was finally established in 1783. In addition to the transformer station for the stagecoaches - at least 50 horses were entertained here - and the agricultural estate there was a blacksmith's workshop, a bakery, a horse pond , a wood shop, a brewery and a schnapps distillery at the chicken church . A toll booth on Hühnerstrasse is documented for 1855 .
In 1778 the bell was hung up again in the main building. It was melted down during the First World War . In 1994 a small bronze bell with the same inscription was reinstalled.
The chicken church was leased from 1795. The initially good economic situation worsened, mainly because the property suffered a lot from armed conflicts. Especially in 1795/96 at the time of the first coalition war , the chicken church suffered great losses. But also when Blucher’s army marched past in November 1813 during the Sixth Coalition War , billeted soldiers were looted and inventory destroyed.
In 1822 the post office was relocated to Neuhof . From then on, the use of the chicken church was limited to agriculture, and later it was again used as a guest house.
In 1865 the Alberti family took over the property, which they had already had a long-term lease since 1806, and still manages it today.
Until the 1960s, a traditional marriage market took place at the Hühnerkirche . This tradition was documented as early as the 18th century.
literature
- Reinhard Battenfeld: From the horse changing station to the country inn . 22 years of hospitality at the Hühnerkirche (once a chapel with the name “Unserer Lieben Frauen zum Honerberg” (Hühnerberg)) In: Yearbook of the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis. Volume 49, District Committee of the Rheingau-Taunus District, Bad Schwalbach 1998, ISSN 1439-0779 , pp. 45-48.
- Helmut Herborn: The post stations in Kirberg and on the Hühnerkirche, the post route from Mainz via Wiesbaden-Limburg to Siegen. (= Newsletter No. 66). Working group for postal history and philately in the former Duchy of Nassau, Idstein 1993.
- Waldemar Schmidt: Strinz-Margarethä and Strinz-Trinitatis - two Bleidenstadt parishes. in: Nassauische Annalen, 65th Volume, 1954. pp. 229-233.
- Alexander Walk: Dining room on the foundations of the east choir . The “chicken church” was once a house of worship. In: Rheingau-Taunus-Heimatbrief. Volume 3, Issue 1, District Committee of the Rheingau-Taunus District , Geisenheim 1989, ISSN 0935-221X , p. 12.
- Rudolf P. Wuschek: The "church guide" to the chicken church. Testimonials and open questions about early history. Goebel , Hünstetten-Görsroth 2009.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Hesse (ed.): Hühnerkirche In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
- ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
Coordinates: 50 ° 14 ′ 46.4 " N , 8 ° 11 ′ 15.5" E