DEUTSCHLAND	GERMANY
Bundesland: Rheinland-Pfalz	Rhineland-Palatinate
Landkreis: Westerwaldkreis

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Hachenburg is situated at an elevation of 380 m high above the valley of the river Große Nister on the watershed between the rivers Sieg and Rhine in the upper Westerwald region of northeastern Rheinland-Pfalz. The origins of the town go back to the castle, which was founded here at the end of the 12th century by the counts of Sayn (see below). The settlement that began to develop below the castle was mentioned as a town in 1247 and received a town charter in 1314. The counts of Sayn-Wittgenstein succeeded the Sayns after the death of the last male heir in 1606. After 1636 Hachenburg came in possession of the Sayn-Hachenburgs, the Manderscheid-Blankenheims, and the burgraves of Kirchberg. In 1799 it became part of Nassau-Weilburg. Together with Nassau it became part of Prussia in 1866. Since 1946 it is part of Germany's state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

The castle of Hachenburg [top picture, centre] was built between 1180 and 1212 by the counts of Sayn. After a fire in 1654 it was rebuilt. Today's Baroque castle was built between 1715 and 1746. Today it is used by German Federal Bank as a training centre and college.

The square Alter Markt bottom left picture] is the centre of the old town.

The catholic parish church Mariä Himmelfahrt (Ascension of Our Lady)) [bottom left] was built by the Franciscans in 1734–1758 in place of an earlier chapel of the order that was built together with the Franciscan monastery in 1666. The Franciscans came into Hachenburg in 1638 in order to re-catholicize the town. The Baroque interior decorations of the church are among the most beautiful of the whole Westerwald region. The monastery was dissolved in 1813. Since then the church serves as the catholic parish church of Hachenburg.

The Protestant castle church [bottom left picture: far right] goes back to an earlier church which had been built prior to 1311 and was dedicated to St. Catherine. The present church was built in early Classicist style in 1775/1776.