Frankfurt
Germany's skyscraper city, and an old square raised again after 1944
- When to go
- October 12° · 12 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€€price 5 of 5
- How many days
- 1days
- For you
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- Nearest airport
- 13 km Frankfurt
- Right now
Frankfurt takes one day, so even a long layover can become a day in the city: the S8 or S9 S-Bahn leaves the airport every fifteen minutes and reaches the main station in under a quarter of an hour. The plan depends on the day of the week, because the Städel is shut on Mondays and the Kleinmarkthalle market on Sundays.
On the night of 22 March 1944 the entire old town burned, some 1,250 half-timbered houses. What stands there now went up in two waves: the houses on the east side of the Römerberg in 1981–1983, from the old drawings, and the new Altstadt between the square and the cathedral, opened in 2018 with fifteen reconstructed houses and twenty new ones. The Römer town hall was rebuilt from 1952 on the ground floors that had survived the fire, and the Old St Nicholas Church on the south side of the square came through the war.
There are skyscrapers because the European Central Bank and Germany's largest stock exchange are here: of Germany's twenty-two skyscrapers over 150 metres, twenty stand in Frankfurt, with one each in Berlin and Bonn. So the city is seen from two heights — from the square at the bottom and from the Main Tower's platform, which shows the glass towers standing right up against the low roofs of the old town and the river.
Frankfurt is above all a hub: Frankfurt airport (FRA) is 13 km from the centre as the crow flies, and fast trains run from the main station to Cologne, Munich and Berlin. For a layover day the order is the Römerberg in the morning, lunch at the Kleinmarkthalle, the south-bank museums in the afternoon and the Main Tower last, because in summer it stays open until nine, and until eleven on Fridays and Saturdays.
What to see in Frankfurt
The Römerberg
The square in front of the Römer town hall, with the Justice Fountain in the middle. In Advent it holds the city's Christmas market.
The Main Tower
A viewing platform at the top of a 200-metre tower; a ticket is €9. It closes two hours earlier in winter, and the last lift goes up 45 minutes before closing.
The Städel
European painting from the early fourteenth century to now, with an underground wing for contemporary art opened in 2012. A ticket is €19, and it stays open until 9 pm on Thursdays.
The Museumsufer
Nine museums in a row on the south bank of the Main, along the Schaumainkai. From the Römerberg you cross to them on the Eiserner Steg footbridge.
The Kleinmarkthalle
A covered market from 1954: meat, fish, cheese, fruit and veg, bread. Open 8 am to 6 pm on weekdays and until 4 pm on Saturdays.
- A
Apfelwein in Sachsenhausen
Sour apple wine drunk from the Gerippte, a glass cut with diamonds, or ordered by the Bembel, a stoneware jug. The taverns that pour it are in Sachsenhausen, across the river.
Two things you probably did not know
German emperors were elected in Frankfurt from 1356 and crowned there from 1562, in St Bartholomew's cathedral. The city was a free imperial city and never had a ruler. It had a council of merchants.
The Frankfurt Book Fair has been held since the fifteenth century, only a few decades after Gutenberg's invention of printing. It is still the largest book fair in the world, with over seven thousand exhibitors.
Ready for Frankfurt?
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