Liebenscheid

Liebenscheid is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.GeographyLocationThe community lies in the Westerwald between Siegen and Limburg on the boundaries with North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse. Liebenscheid belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rennerod, a kind of collective municipality.Constituent communitiesLiebenscheid has two outlying centres named Weißenberg and Löhnfeld.HistoryIn 1341, Liebenscheid had its first documentary mention in a partition treaty between the sons of Count Johann I of Nassau-Dillenburg. At this time there also stood Schloss Liebenscheid, a residential castle, which was later taken down.In 1360, Liebenscheid, together with the neighbouring village of Weißenberg, was granted town rights by Emperor Karl IV, whereby the Emperor bestowed upon the two places the same rights that the Imperial town of Wetzlar held.In the prison at Schloss Liebenscheid, Peter Paul Rubens’s father, Jan Rubens, was once held for having a close relationship with Anna, William the Silent’s wife.