It is the Catholic counterpart to the mighty Protestant Marktkirche: the Bonifatiuskirche at the northern end of Luisenplatz. Even if its towers, at 68 meters high, do not reach quite as far into the sky as those of the Marktkirche, the church has a special place in the city. It is Wiesbaden's oldest inner-city church, and one with a tragic history to boot. The first building, which could have accommodated 2,000 people, collapsed just a few months after completion in 1831 - probably because the foundations were not strong enough in the damp ground.

A good ten years later, the next attempt was made by 36-year-old architect Philipp Hoffmann. He had excelled in the construction of the city palace and thus won the favor of Duke Wilhelm von Nassau. Now he was allowed to plan a church for Wiesbaden, which was to give the then still young Luisenplatz a worthy finish. When the young Elisabeth Mikhailovna, wife of the young Duke Adolph von Nassau, died giving birth to her daughter in 1845, she was buried here - until Philipp Hoffmann built a Russian-style burial church for her on the Neroberg.

Crowned by St. Boniface's Church, Luisenplatz is an architectural masterpiece: planned in 1830 as a strictly classical entrance for all those entering the city from the south. Today, the Hessian Ministry of Culture is based here. A striking monument on the square is the Waterloo obelisk, which commemorates the battle against Napoleon in which Nassau soldiers lost their lives in 1815.