Felsenkirche

Description

The face of a city is shaped by the landscape in which it lies and by its architecture. By the latter one can mean outstanding buildings (in the literal and figurative sense) or the whole or part of the building fabric, which can create a particularly characteristic impression. For more than half a millennium, the townscape of Oberstein on the Nahe presented a distinctive, striking combination of all these elements: river, cliff, castles and the church in the rock formed a unique ensemble that countless painters, draftsmen, copper engravers and photographers, poets and writers, locals, tourists and journalists — artists as well as amateurs — have captured in images or described over the centuries. It is not the rock church itself that is — as has often been claimed — unique in the world. Houses of worship or hermitages built in or on rock occur elsewhere as well. What is special about the rock church in Idar-Oberstein is the overall impression: the connection of nature and culture in the middle of a town, and it is certainly no coincidence that its origin is linked with legendary events.