Every Easter Monday, Dr. Picard, Eppstein's archivist, conducts a walking tour of old Eppstein-- from the train station to the castle ruins. Today I took the tour for my third time. In particular, I enjoy hearing about turn-of-the-century Eppstein as a tourist destination. It seems once Eppstein got on the train line, vacationers would come by train from the Rhineland to spend the week in the spa town ("Luftkurort") with its romantic castle ruins. In 1900, as many as 3000 tourists would make the trip out to Eppstein on a beautiful day such as today.
The tour went by what used to be Hotel Seiler (Burgstr. 6), built in 1878 by an engineer who was involved with the train line. You can still see the pavillion, where the guests would take their breakfasts. The story behind the medieval "Mord- und Sühnekreuz" (murder and atonement cross) a few steps further on was new to me--when someone killed someone in the Middle Ages, part of the punishment was for the murderer to put up a cross on a well-traveled road in the victim's name, so travelers would be encouraged to offer a prayer to the departed.
After going into the St. Laurentius Church, we passed by the old city wall and heard that Eppstein got its "Stadtrecht" (town charter) in 1318, very early considering medieval Eppstein only had 100-150 citizens. Dr. Picard pointed out the tower in the quaint building which used to be the town hall and now houses the Eppsteiner Zeitung (Eppstein's newspaper); the narrow tower used to hold the town's firehoses! Then we went into the Protestant church, the Talkirche, which was built in the early 15th century by the Lords of Eppstein and was Catholic before the Reformation.
The walking tour's final destination was up to the castle (first mention in 1122--"Ebbensten"), where coffee and cake awaited us in the "Kemenate" (ladies' chambers). A perfect Easter Monday tour, which can be walked any day of the year.
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