Historical tour of the town
The historical tour of the town begins at the Town Hall, where there is plenty of parking space available free of charge.
Rothschild Castle / Town Hall
Schlossgasse 41 / Hildastrasse
The Rothschild Castle was built on the site of the former horse stables. It has been in possession of the town Hemsbach since 1925 and serves as Town Hall.
The villa (middle section) was built by the electoral hunting advisor Blesen in 1764 and taken over by Baron Rothschild in 1839. The latter had the villa itself and the surrounding park extended to their present state. Wings and corner turrets give the new castle its Mediterranean flair.
Protestant Christ Church
Goethestrasse 14
The use of the Catholic Church St. Lawrence for both confessions came to an end in 1936 when the Protestant Christ Church was built and inaugurated.
Former Synagogue
Mittelgasse 16
The first Jews settled in Hemsbach in the 17th Century and the Synagogue was opened in the mid 19th Century as a house of prayer, school and dwelling place for the teacher. The ritual bathing house Mikwe also belongs to the synagogue. The building with two floors accommodated approx. 70 men in the lower part and 50 women in the upper gallery. Over the entrance is an inscription in Hebrew and an excerpt from the Book of Kings. The Synagogue was badly damaged during the Reich pogrom night of 9th to 10th November 1938. It went into private ownership after the 2nd World War and was the site of a mattress factory and later living quarters for foreign workers and their families. Since 1981 the Synagogue has been owned by the town and is a place of remembrance, commemoration and meeting and is also used for cultural activities.
St. Lawrence Church
The Church was newly built in Baroque style around mid 18th Century and further extended at the beginning of the 19th Century. It served both confessions as a place of worship until the Protestant Christ Church (see 6) was built and this fact is documented with the double laying of the foundation stones. The former church was first mentioned in the 13th Century in a document issued by Pope Gregor IX for Lorsch Monastery. After being destroyed in the 30 Years' War it was rebuilt between 1656 and 1658 as an inter-confessional church. The adjoining vicarage is also noteworthy.
Old Town Hall
Bachgasse 7
The two storey building built in 1698 with an open ground floor entrance hall was destroyed by fire in 1851 with only the old tower remaining and irreplaceable scripts lost forever. The newly constructed building was again used as the town hall and from time to time also as a private home. The building was completely renovated during the Seventies and today it is available to the Town Council and the political parties, as well as being a venue for exhibitions and lectures.
The House of Knights of the former castle is thought to be the oldest building still remaining. It was probably founded in the 12th Century as a water-surrounded Castle with a drop grid and pull bridge for safety. In the 15th Century it was extended by additional water trenches. It was mentioned for the first time in 1264 as a place for negociations and settlement of disputes. Later the castle was only used for agricultural purposes. Nowadays the House of Knights is called "Zehntscheuer" meaning tithe barn, which is not really correct.
After this walk round the town we should like to make you acquainted with some places of historical and cultural interest, which are all reached via Mühlweg (In the direction of Balzenbach).
Stone horse
The striking rock formation resembles a horse laying down with its foals. It was mentioned already in stone records of 805 (to be seen in St. Peter's Cathedral in Heppenheim) as an ancient landmark or border stone and is documented in the Lorsch Codex as the Stone Horse. On the adjacent mound a stone which resembles an altar with a hollow inside indicates a cult stone (witches' stone).
Waldner Tower
The Waldner Tower also known as the Tower of the Four Knights due to the four small sculptures of knights at the top, was built by the owner of the Waldner Estate around the middle of the 19th Century in the spirit of the time.
Kreuzberg
The Kreuzberg, also popularly known as At The Oak, stands at 340 metres above sea level and is Hemsbach's local hill; it was given its name in the 14th Century. Monks from the Lorsch Monastery built a chapel here, which was destroyed several times and was badly in need of repair. From the beginning of the 18th Century onwards the place of pilgrimage was looked after by a hermitage. After the last hermits had left the recluse was abandoned in 1808. The chapel and hermitage no longer exist but fourteen castiron replicas of the stations of the Cross and an altar cross are witness to the place of pilgrimage and meeting. An important written document for the pilgrims is a letter of indulgence dated 1521 from the Diet of Worms which mentions the Chapel of the Holy Cross at the oak on the hill near Hemsbach (capella santae crucis zur Eich vulgariter dicta in monte prope villam Hemspach).
Jewish Cemetery
The cemetery was built in 1674 and served as a joint cemetery with over 1000 tombstones for Jewish communities along the Bergstrasse and in the Rhine Valley. The last funeral took place in 1940.
