cherry Orchard, © City of Mainz© City of Mainz

Walk to explore the city

The morning in Mainz

Discover the well-known Mainz old town with its beautiful half-timbered houses. Worthwhile are also the various Mainz museums. Of course, a detour to the cathedral should not be missed.

Altstadt Mainz

Mainz

Oldtown

The old centre of Mainz with its medieval cathedral, the Electoral Palace, patrician town houses, narrow lanes, cobblestone streets, and beautiful squares, reflects the fascinating history of the city. Modern landmark buildings include the City Hall, designed by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen and built in 1971, the "Am Brand" shopping centre, the Rheingoldhalle conference centre, and Fort Malakoff. Walking through Mainz means walking through 2000 years of history and cultural life, Golden Ages, and times of upheaval and utter…

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Mainz

St. Martin's Cathedral

"This cathedral above the Rhine Valley with all of its might and glory would have remained in my memory even if I had never seen it again," wrote the German author Anna Seghers. The majestic Cathedral of Mainz is a key feature of the cityscape even today – over a thousand years after its construction. Mainz, located at the intersection of important trade routes and the place where Saint Boniface worked and lived, became an important centre of Christianity from 746/47. The city was eventually promoted to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of…

Carnival Museum

Mainz

Carnival Museum at the Proviant warehouse

The carnival museum, which was newly opened in 2004, presents 160 years of Mainz carnival history. From fool's hats, medals, guards uniforms, and costumes to song books, programs, and historical image and sound documents to excerpts from the famous television sessions “Mainz, how it sings and laughs”, the exhibition offers a lively part of Mainz's history and culture. The exhibits document the Carnival from its beginnings in 1837 until today. The political-literary tradition dates back to the Vormärz (pre-March) period when…

Gutenberg Museum

Mainz

Gutenberg-Museum Mainz

Experience the history of printing, books, and type-setting. One of the oldest book and print museums is located right at the heart of Mainz, just across from the cathedral. Founded in 1900 by a group of citizens from Mainz, the Gutenberg Museum is dedicated to Johannes Gutenberg, the man behind one of the most important inventions in the history of mankind. Among the biggest treasures of the collection are two original Gutenberg Bibles printed around 1450. Another highlight is the recreated workshop of Gutenberg where skilled printers…

Cathedral and Diocesan Museum

Mainz

Cathedral and Diocesan Museum

The Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum extends over a floor space of 3000 square metres and is thus the second largest diocesan museum in Germany. It features a unique sequence of rooms from the early, high, and late Middle Ages in which works of art dating from 500 to 1500 CE are on display. The ground floor is reserved for special exhibitions. In the basement of the museum, visitors walk through early and late medieval vaulted cellars where artefacts of Roman Mainz, and the Romanesque and Gothic periods are exhibited. On the floor…