Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn.

The town lies roughly centrally in a basin within the Rhenish Slate Mountains which is surrounded by the low ranges of the Taunus and Westerwald and called the Limburg Basin (Limburger Becken). Owing to the favourable soil and local weather, the Limburg Basin stands as considered one of Hesse's richest agricultural areas and moreover, with its convenient Lahn crossing, it has been of nice significance to move because the Middle Ages. Within the basin, the Lahn's otherwise fairly narrow lower valley broadens out noticeably, making Limburg's imply elevation only 117 m above sea level.


Limburg kinds, along with the city of Diez, a middle centre (when it comes to Central place concept) however partially features as an higher centre to western Middle Hesse.

Limburg's residential neighbourhoods reach past the town limits; the neighbouring centres of Elz and Diez run seamlessly together.

Surrounding cities and communities are the group of Elz and the city of Hadamar within the north, the community of Beselich within the northeast, the town of Runkel in the east, the communities of Villmar and Brechen within the southeast, the community of Hünfelden within the south (all in Limburg-Weilburg), the group of Holzheim in the southwest, and the town of Diez and the communities of Aull and Gückingen in the west (all within the Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate).

The closest major cities are Wetzlar and Gießen to the north east, Wiesbaden and Frankfurt to the south and Koblenz to the west.

The city consists of eight previously autonomous Ortsteile or villages, listed right here by population.

Limburg: 18,393
Lindenholzhausen: 3,377
Linter: 3,a hundred and sixty
Eschhofen: 2,803
Staffel: 2,656
Offheim: 2,572
Dietkirchen: 1,724
Ahlbach: 1,281
Likewise usually called a constituent group is Blumenrod, though this is actually solely a giant residential neighbourhood in the main city’s south end. Its landmark is the Domäne Blumenrod, a former manor house that has been restored and remodelled by the Limburg Free Evangelical community.

Limburg’s biggest outlying centre is Lindenholzhausen (three,329 residents as of June 2.06); the second largest is Linter.

The derivation of the title "Limburg" isn't quite clear and may nicely hearken back to a citadel built right here (Burg means "fortress" in German). In 910 the town was first talked about as Lintpurc. Two of the popular theories are:

The title was chosen because of the shut proximity to the Linterer Bach, a former stream in Linter that has now run dry and that emptied into the Lahn on the Domfelsen (crag). Linda is the Gaulish word for water.
Quite unlikely however highly regarded is the connection to a dragon saga (see Lindworm) and the reference to the monastery of Saint George the "Dragon Slayer" founded in Limburg. However, the monastery was constructed after the citadel and based around the time of the first written point out of the name.

About 800, the first castle buildings arose on the Limburg crags. This was in all probability designed for the protection of a ford over the river Lahn. In the decades that followed, the town developed underneath the citadel's protection. Limburg is first talked about in paperwork in 910 underneath the title of Lintpurc when Louis the Little one granted Konrad Kurzbold an estate in the neighborhood on which he was to build a church. Konrad Kurzbold laid the foundation stone for Saint George's Monastery Church, the place he was also buried. The neighborhood soon elevated in significance with the monastery's founding and profited from the lively items commerce on the Through Publica.

In 1150, a wooden bridge was built throughout the Lahn. The lengthy-distance highway from Cologne to Frankfurt am Important subsequently ran by Limburg. Within the early thirteenth century, Limburg Fortress was built in its present form. Shortly afterwards, the city handed into the possession of the Lords of Ysenburg. In 1214, the group was granted town rights. Remains of the fortification wall from the years 1130, 12.0 and 1340 with a maxiumum length of roughly one thousand metres point out to at the present time the blossoming city's fast improvement in the Middle Ages. There may be proof of a mint in Limburg in 1180.


Mediaeval window at the back of the cathedral (peristyle)
One line of the Lords of Ysenburg resided from 1258 to 1406 at Limburg Citadel and took their name from their seat, Limburg. From this line got here the House of Limburg-Stirum and also Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg, German King Adolf's wife.

The ruling class among the many mediaeval townsfolk have been rich merchant households whose houses stood proper close to the citadel tower and had been surrounded by the primary city wall once it was built. The area of in the present day's Rossmarkt ("Horse Market"), wherein many simple craftsmen lived, was only introduced inside the fortifications once the second town wall was built. The inhabitants there, however, not like the service provider élite, were accorded no entitlement to a voice on the town affairs and weren't allowed to ship representatives to the city council. However, they had to bear the principle monetary burden of working the town. Solely in 1458 had been they allowed to send two representatives to city council.


Saint George's Cathedral (Sankt-Georgs-Dom) built on the old monastery church's web site, and likewise called Georgsdom, was consecrated in 1235. On 14 Might 1289, a devastating fire worn out nice elements of the internal city, though these have been subsequently rebuilt. One of many houses constructed at the moment was the Römer 2-four-6, which is today one in all Germany's Limburg oldest half-timbered houses. In 1337, Limburg's Jews were expelled from the town. Only in 1341 have been they as soon as again able to settle within the town, by royal decree. In 1344 a half share of the city was pledged to the Voters of Trier, and in 1420, the city handed wholly into the ownership of Trier. This event, together with another town fire in 1342, the Black Demise in 1349, 1356 and 1365, but above all the rise of the Territorial Princes, led to a gradual decline. In 1315 and 1346, the old stone Lahn Bridge was built (presumably in two sections).


Limburg – extract from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655

Saint George's Cathedral in Limburg today

Old Town
Against the background of the German Peasants' War, unrest additionally arose among the many townsfolk in 1525. After the Elector of Trier had demanded that the townsmen turn a Lutheran preacher out of the city, a board made up of townsmen who had been ineligible for council functions handed the council a 30-point comprehensive listing of calls for on 24 May. It dealt primarily with financial participation and equality in taxation, trade and building points with the service provider class. In the days that followed, these demands were reduced in negotiations between the council and the board to 16 points, which had been seemingly additionally taken up with the Elector afterwards. On 5 August, however, Archbishop Richard ordered the council to overturn all concessions to the townsmen. Additionalmore, a ban on assembly was decreed, and the ineligible townsmen were stripped of their proper to send representatives to council.

In 1806, Limburg came into the possession of the newly founded Duchy of Nassau. In 1818 the city wall was torn down. In 1827 the town was raised to a Catholic episcopal seat. In 1866 the Duchy and with it Limburg handed to Prussia within the wake of the Austro-Prussian War. As of 1862, Limburg turned a railway hub and from 1886 a district seat. In 1892, the Pallottines settled in town, however solely the men; the ladies came in 1895.

Throughout World War I there was a significant prisoner of war camp at Limburg an der Lahn. Many Irish members of the British Military have been interned there until the top of the war and at one stage they had been visited by the Irish republican chief Roger Casement in an try and win recruits for the forthcoming Irish rebellion.

From 1919 to 1923, Limburg was the "capital" of a brief-lived state called Free State Bottleneck (or Freistaat Flaschenhals in German) because it was the closest unoccupied town to the Weimar Republic.

Limburg is a conventional transport hub. Already in the Center Ages, the Via Publica crossed the navigable Lahn here. In the present day the A three (Emmerich–Oberhausen–Cologne–Frankfurt–Nuremberg–Passau) and Bundesstraße 8, which both observe the Via Publica's alignment as intently as possible, run by the town. Bundesstraße forty nine links Limburg to Koblenz towards the west and Wetzlar and Gießen towards the east. The part between Limburg and Wetzlar is currently being widened to four lanes. This part as far as Obertiefenbach is often known as Die lange Meil ("The Lengthy Mile"). Bundesstraße fifty four links Limburg on the one hand with Siegen to the north and on the opposite by means of Diez with Wiesbaden, which can likewise be reached over Bundesstraße 417 (Hühnerstraße).

As early as 1248, a wood bridge spanned the Lahn, however was changed after the flooding in 1306 by a stone bridge, the Alte Lahnbrücke. Different street bridges are the Lahntalbrücke Limburg (1964) on the A 3, the Lahnbrücke near Staffel and the Neue Lahnbrücke from 1968, over which run the Bundesstraßen before they cross under the inside city by means of the Schiedetunnel, a bypass tunnel.

Once the Lahntalbahn had been built, Limburg was joined to the railway community in 1862. Limburg railway station developed into a transport hub. Eschhofen station can also be in Limburg. Other railway strains are the Unterwesterwaldbahn, the Oberwesterwaldbahn and the Main-Lahn Railway. At Niedernhausen station on the Predominant-Lahn Railway, transfer to the Ländchesbahn to Wiesbaden is possible. Aside from the higher section of the Lahntalbahn and express strains to Koblenz and Frankfurt, which are still served by Deutsche Bahn, all railway lines are run by Vectus Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH, based in Limburg.

Once the InterCityExpress Cologne-Frankfurt high-pace rail line had been constructed, Limburg acquired an ICE station. It's the solely railway station in Germany at which exclusively ICE trains stop. The high-speed rail line crosses the Lahn over the Lahntalbrücke after which dives into the Limburger Tunnel.

The nearest airport is Frankfurt Airport, 63 km away on the A 3. Journey time there on the ICE is roughly 20 minutes. Cologne Bonn Airport is one hundred ten km away and might be reached on the ICE in 44 minutes.

The Lahn between Lahnstein and Wetzlar is a Bundeswasserstraße ("Federal waterway"). Because the Lahntalbahn's growth, however, the waterway's importance has been declining. It is used primarily by tourists with small motorboats, canoes and rowboats. Limburg is the landing site of the tourboat Wappen von Limburg.