In the Middle Ages, Horb am Neckar was part of the Diocese of Constance, under the local supervision of the Archdiaconate "Vor dem Walde", based in Dornstetten. When the Protestant Reformation came to Germany, Horb was still a part of Further Austria, and thus remained overwhelmingly Catholic along with the rest of Austria. Upon its transfer to the Kingdom of Württemberg, the territory was assigned to the Diocese of Rottenburg (today, Rottenburg-Stuttgart) and made the seat of a deanery. In 1976 it was merged with the Deanery of Freudenstadt to form a new deanery, still named for Freudenstadt but based in Horb; it contains nearly all of the Catholic parishes in the mostly Protestant "Landkreis Freudenstadt."