In addition to the castle chapel, there was a Marienkapelle in Dillenburg (mentioned in 1454).
However, the Sunday service had to be attended in the mother church in the neighboring village of Feldbach. The arduous path in winter as well as the poor protection against fire and robberies during the longer absence of the citizens, whose number was also constantly growing, called for a remedy. With a reasoned request to the Archbishop of Trier, to whose diocese our church district belonged, the Dillenburg Count Johann V. achieved that from 1490 the service with all the sacraments could finally be held in the church of Dillenburg.
At that time, a much larger new building was being built on the site of the Marienkapelle on the Kirchberg. On June 3, 1491, the "Johannis Church", named after John the Baptist, was consecrated. After the Reformation had been introduced in the County of Nassau-Dillenburg from 1530, the church was given two galleries at the end of the 16th century. The "Walpurgis bell" has been ringing since 1510, now accompanied by 3 steel bells from 1919.
The tombs of the ancestors of the House of Orange-Nassau are located in the choir room. The parents of Wilhelm von Orange, Wilhelm der Reiche (†1559) and Juliane von Stolberg (†1580) and his brother, Count Johann VI. from Nassau-Dillenburg (†1606). A gem of late Gothic stonemasonry is the heart-shaped tombstone for John IV from 1479. In the side crypt the visitor will find four mighty lead coffins in which the last princely family of Dillenburg Castle found their resting place (early 18th century).
For the 500th anniversary in 1991, the interior was renovated and many parts of the organ were rebuilt and expanded by the Oberlinger company. In the meantime, more than 30 registers can be heard, plus a Rückpositiv. The baroque prospectus, which once adorned the organ from 1719 to 1880, but was installed at a different location in the meantime, has returned to its old place in the town church. From 2014 - 2016 the church roof was extensively renovated and the exterior plaster renewed.