Our first stop on our last Christmas holiday trip on our way to the Czech Republic was picturesque Limburg an der Lahn. We parked our camper van at the opposite shore from the Lahn river facing the city center and its impressive Dom and Castle. It was a short walk to the Alte Lahnbrücke, from which it appeared that Kurt Hielscher took his photo some 96 years before. It is unknown when the first church was built here, but its current shape dates from 1180. On the night of the 28th to 29th of February 1929, the west wing of the Castle was hit by a big fire. The Dom had some damage too, but not as severe as the Castle. The fire brigade had to pump water from the Lahn to the castle. Due to the extreme cold, a hole had been made in the Lahn's ice, which was up to one meter thick, to suck out extinguishing water that later froze on the ruins of the wall. A total of 1.2 million liters of water were pumped out of the Lahn in almost 15 hours. Only the walls of the Castle remained upright; the rest was destroyed with the book inventory of the library on the ground floor. Restoration works started soon and were finished in 1935. Kurt Hielscher also took a photo of the Castle in 1924, which you can see on my Facebook page.