Unionskirche (Idstein)

The Uniting Church in Idstein in the Martin- Luther -Straße 1 is a Protestant parish church, which has an outstanding baroque interiors. It represents the first major church in the Duchy of Nassau is after the Thirty Years War and bears, as well as the lying in the immediate vicinity Killingerhaus and Höerhof, the international distinctive sign for the marking of cultural property under the Hague Convention.

History

Even before 1287 must have existed at the site of Union Church, a Romanesque church. Remains of this church in the tower of the Uniting Church prove this. For more details, about this church, however, not known. The Uniting Church is due to the former collegiate church of St. Martin, which was built on the site of the Romanesque church from 1330 to 1350 under Count Gerlach. The 1333 built Canons belonged to six canons.

From 1665 to 1677 the church was extensively for preaching and Hofkirche rebuilt by Count Johann. The ceiling of the nave was entirely covered with large-scale oil paintings of the Rubens School. Johann himself witnessed the completion of the work not because he died shortly before completion. The sculptor Franz Matthias Hiernle left of the altar erected a grave monument to Prince Georg August Samuel of Nassau- Idstein, his wife Henriette Dorothea and her children on a design by Maximilian von Welsch.

The name Union Church bears the church since 1917. Previously, she was designated as a city church. She was so unlike the castle chapel at Idstein palace in which in 1806 the Catholic community celebrated their worship, as also referred to the sky parish chapel of St. Mary which stood near the present-day marketplace before Himmeltor. The name Union Church was awarded ( Nassauische Union ) on the occasion of the centenary of the union of the Lutheran and Reformed church in the Duchy of Nassau. This merger was the first of its kind in the German Reich.

The Union Church is facing a major renovation in terms of the 200 - year anniversary of the Nassau Union in 2017 and will be closed until mid-2015.

Description

Externally, the Union church looks unimpressive. Very gorgeous, however the interior is equipped.

Ceiling painting

Ceiling painting

Reiterchörchen

Walcker organ

Church Music

The organ was built in 1912 by Walcker and integrated into the historic Prospect of Stumm organ from 1783.

The church choir, directed by Edwin Muller, announced in 1972, the name Idsteiner choir and began regularly perform two choral concerts each year, in addition to participation in worship and concerts in the smaller churches of the deanery, for example, in St. John's Church in Niederseelbach or the church in Heftrich. Since 2003 Carsten Koch cantor of the Uniting Church, who also teaches at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. He chose for choir concerts also lesser-known works from, for example, Schumann's Missa sacra on 9 November 2008. 2011 Mendelssohn was listed hymn, with Christiane Kohl as soloist.

Concerts

The Union Church was a venue of the Rheingau Music Festival, especially for vocal ensembles such as Chanticleer, Ensemble Amarcord and The Singphoniker.

Carsten Koch began in 2004 a series of symphony concerts at Heritage Day, which includes the complete symphonies of Beethoven. It was terminated on September 9, 2012 with the 9th Symphony. The concert decided an anniversary week of church music, 100 years Walcker organ and 40 years of Idsteiner Kantorei.