haus zum marienbildchen

1651-1685 Stood at this site the rectory of Evangelical Reformed Municipality Rhens, a community space that was equipped with benches and pulpit. According 1679 Kurköln (Archbishopric and electorate of Cologne) provisions of the Treaty of Westphalia from 1648, the conversion after migration of the last Rhenser Protestant, came in 1685 the more than 150 year old Protestant tradition of the town of Rhens to a total standstill. To eliminate signs of the city’s religious division church benches and pulpit were removed. The building was leased to a blacksmith, despite all efforts of then-Pastor Daniels it could not be incorporated into the Catholic Church as it was property of the landgraves of Hesse (landgrave: title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor). In 1698 this building burnt down, allegedly the blacksmith was careless in regard fire. Nevertheless, there were rumors of deliberate arson by the schoolmaster, evidence for this assumption could not be delivered. The site with the collapsed cellar of the Protestant Church remained fallow land until the Hessian Government in 1730 coincidentally noticed that they owned real property in Rhens. The plot was sold to councillor Philipp Altenhofen (1686-1770), who had a stately home built at the plot in 1734, its proceeds were donated to the Evangelical Reformed Municipalty in Bad Schwalbach, founded in 1685 by its last evangelical pastor Johann Bernhard Delph from Rhens. The history of Marienbildchen (owner initials in a niche on the Bay window) is up for speculation. Perhaps it belonged to a wayside shrine which stood here before the construction of this House. If this is the case, like “Heiligenhäuschen” (chapel) below the Dionysius Church, the Catholic Church triumphed over Protestantism, as in 17th century the reluctance of Protestants regarding the Catholic Marian-cult was a popular theme resulting in religious conflicts.

Das (Mini) Zentrum von Rhens ist sehr beschaulich. Von den alten Fachwerkhäusern ist das wohl das schiefste.