After the Landschad family of Steinach died out in 1653, the Bishoprics of Worms and Speyer at first oversaw the fief, with the latter living at the Hinterburg. In 1657, the episcopal fief was given to Wolf Heinrich Metternich von Burscheid, who had kinship with the Archpishop of Mainz, and who also acquired the allodial properties from the Landschads’ legacy. Metternich was old-school – that is to say, Catholic – and encouraged other Catholics to come and settle in town. The Evangelical church in Neckarsteinach therefore ended up housing up to three denominations from 1662 to 1908. In the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), French, Saxon, Brandenburgish and Bavarian troops passed through the Neckar valley and quartered there and are said to have made contributions.