Old Town Hall in Höchst

Höchst was so prosperous around the year 1600 as the electoral capital: The Old Town Hall stands as a striking reminder of this brief golden age between the city fire of 1586—which also destroyed the previous town hall—and the Thirty Years’ War. During this period, the two northern Italian master builders and brothers, Oswald and Jakob Stupanus, designed a new town hall for Höchst entirely in the Renaissance style; it was completed in 1595. With its stepped gables, white-plastered facade, and red sandstone window frames, it brings an Italian flair to the otherwise typically Hessian half-timbered old town. Since 1844 and to this day, it has been used as a residential building.