Wolfstein, Rhineland-Palatinate
Wolfstein was founded in 1275 on Habsburg King Rudolph I's orders, which called for a “fortified and free” town near his castle, “Woluisstein”, now known as the "Alt-Wolfstein" (“Old Wolfstein”) ruin. Rudolph forthwith granted the new town the same town rights and freedoms as the town of Speyer. As an “everlasting marketplace”, it was to be a sanctuary for commerce, trade and dealing. The first townsmen and -women came from the surrounding, much older villages.
Wolfstein, Rhineland-Palatinate
From the late 17th century, the Catholic parish of Wolfstein grew into a broad, scattered community taking in the villages of Rutsweiler, Kreimbach, Kaulbach, Olsbrücken, Neumühle, Katzweiler, Hirschhorn, Obersulzbach, Untersulzbach, Tiefenbach, Oberweiler and Roßbach, with all together 381 souls. For church services, they used the old Saint George's Chapel at the castle, and from time to time, in simultaneum, the Reformed church on Wassergasse. In 1776 they acquired the newly built, stylistically pleasing Baroque church on Obergasse.