Leun is a small town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.

Geography

Location

Leun lies some 10 km west of Wetzlar between the foothills of the northern Taunus and the Westerwald in the Lahn valley, at a height of 150 to 330 m above sea level.

Neighbouring communities

Leun borders in the north on the communities of

Greifenstein Greifenstein is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. Its administrative seat is Beilstein. Greifenstein covers 67.43 km² on the eastern slope of the Westerwald range. It was named for the castle of the same name in th ...

and Ehringshausen, in the east on the town of Solms, in the south on the town of

Braunfels Braunfels () is a town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Geography Location The climatic spa of Braunfels lies at a height of some 100 m above the Lahn valley. It is 9 km southwest ...

(all in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis) and in the west on the community of Löhnberg ( Limburg-Weilburg).

Constituent communities

The town consists of the five centres of Biskirchen, Bissenberg, Lahnbahnhof, Leun and Stockhausen.

History

Leun had its first documentary mention in 771. Building a stone bridge in the late 15th century and being granted market rights helped the village's economic growth, which in 1664 resulted in town rights being granted. As part of Hesse's municipal reform, the new, bigger town of Leun came into being when the main town of Leun and the other aforesaid communities voluntarily joined together on 1 January 1972.

Politics

Town council

The municipal elections on 6 March 2016 yielded the following results: Note: FWG is a citizens' coalition.

Partnerships

The town of Leun maintains partnerships with the following places: *

Feytiat Feytiat (; oc, Festiac) is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in west-central France. Population Inhabitants are known as ''Feytiacois'' in French. See also *Communes of the Haute-Vienne department Th ...

in the département of

Haute-Vienne Haute-Vienne (; oc, Nauta Vinhana, ; English: Upper Vienne) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwest-central France. Named after the Vienne River, it is one of the twelve departments that together constitute Nouvelle-Aquitai ...

since 1980 * Rastenberg, Thuringia since 1990

Sightseeing

Evangelical Church

In the historic main town of Leun stands the Evangelical Church, whose exact building date is unknown. The mighty "defensive" tower and the main nave are Romanesque, whereas the sanctuary's and transept's origins are early and late

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

respectively. Within the church is an old and, in terms of art history, meaningful, wooden

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

with panelling showing Southwest Asian motifs. In the transept stands the

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

built in 1808 by the brothers Philipp Heinrich and Johann Georg Bürgy. It has 13

stops Stop may refer to: Places *Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...

on one

manual Manual may refer to: Instructions * User guide * Owner's manual * Instruction manual (gaming) * Online help Other uses * Manual (music), a keyboard, as for an organ * Manual (band) * Manual transmission * Manual, a bicycle technique similar to ...

keyboard, and a pedalboard. In the tower hang three bells, none of which comes from the bellmaker's that originally did business in the town. Up from the church lies the graveyard in which can be found remains of the old town wall and the old Upper Gate.

Historic town core

The town core still has a few stately timber-frame houses that bear witness to the town's bygone wealth. In one is housed the town museum. The best known among them is the ''Erkerhaus'' ("Bay Window House") on Limburger Straße, which nowadays is counted among the town's landmarks. At the great

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

porch into the yard, the remains of the former ''Junkernhof'' (see Junker) can be recognized, seat of the family Mohr, with a still preserved manor house. Also worth seeing are the old mill and the old Latin school.

Biskirchen

In the constituent community of Biskirchen are the ruins of the old ''Bischofskirche'' (Bishop's Church), and a well house housing the healing spring that appears here.

Natural monuments

In the northern forest is the ''Leuner Burg'', but although "Burg" means "castle", it is actually a former quarry which is now considered a natural monument.

Sport

Leun is where the regular tennis tournament called the Leun Open is held.

Transport

Leun lies on Federal Highway (''Bundesstraße'') 49. To the north, by way of Ehringshausen, is an interchange with the Autobahn A 45. Within Leun's municipal area are found two railway stations, Leun/Braunfels (in the constituent community of Lahnbahnhof) and Stockhausen on the

Lahntal railway The Lahntal railway (German: ''Lahntalbahn'') is a railway line between Niederlahnstein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Wetzlar in Hesse. Its western terminus was originally in Oberlahnstein. Trains now mostly operate between Kob ...

(''Lahntalbahn'') running from Gießen through Limburg to

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...