Mainz

A thousand-year-old bishop's city at the confluence of the Rhine and Main rivers, where Gutenberg invented movable-type printing. The red sandstone cathedral and Chagall's blue stained-glass windows are must-sees.

Mainz is the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It sits where the Rhine and Main rivers meet, across the river from Wiesbaden, capital of Hesse. Frankfurt Airport is only about 25 minutes away by train. The Romans established a military camp here in 13 BC. In the Middle Ages, the Archbishop of Mainz was one of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Around 1450, Gutenberg invented metal movable-type printing here, changing the world. The heart of the city is within walking distance: the red sandstone cathedral and the Marktplatz market square, the Gutenberg Museum, the Kirschgarten and the old town along Augustinerstraße to the south, the Chagall windows in St. Stephan's Church on the southwest hillside, the Electoral Palace and the State Museum along the river to the north, and Roman remains such as the citadel, the Drusus Stone and the Roman Theatre.

Mainz is also a wine capital. The surrounding Rheinhessen is Germany's largest wine region, and the wine taverns in the old town and the Saturday morning market are not to be missed. The best season is May to September, with the Mainz Wine Festival in August and September. February brings the Rose Monday carnival parade, when the whole city celebrates. In December, a Christmas market is held in front of the cathedral.

Plan to stay 1 to 2 days. You can also take a river cruise or a day trip by train through the Rhine Valley.

Top sights

• St. Stephan's Church (Chagall Windows) – Nine blue stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall in this Gothic church, his late-career masterpiece created to promote Franco-German reconci…
• Mainz Cathedral – Mainz's thousand-year-old Romanesque cathedral of red sandstone, one of Germany's three imperial cathedrals, with six towers rising above t…
• Gutenberg Museum – One of the world's oldest printing museums, housing the original Gutenberg Bible and offering live demonstrations of movable type printing.
• Mainz Old Town & Kirschgarten – The best-preserved old quarter south of the cathedral, with half-timbered houses around the small Kirschgarten square and wine taverns on n…
• St. Augustine's Church, Mainz – A Rococo church on the Old Town's pedestrian street, plain on the outside but lavish within, with pale gold stucco ornament and ceiling pai…
• Mainz Marktplatz & Weekly Market – The main square at the foot of the cathedral, where the farmers' markets on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and the Saturday “market breakfast…
• Rhine Promenade, Mainz – A riverside promenade stretching several kilometers along the left bank of the Rhine, with lawns, beer gardens and café seating overlooking…
• Landesmuseum Mainz – A state museum of art and history housed in the former electoral stables, with collections spanning Roman stone carvings, medieval sculptur…
• Museum of Ancient Seafaring – Displays Roman military ship wrecks unearthed in Mainz in the 1980s and replica vessels; the site is under renovation, with reopening plann…
• Sanctuary of Isis and Mater Magna – Roman temple ruins beneath a shopping center, where light and sound displays recreate the worship of eastern goddesses in 1st-century Mainz.
• Mainz Citadel & Drusus Stone – A 17th-century star-shaped fortress on the southern slope of the Old Town, containing the remains of a monument built in 9 BC for the Roman…
• Roman Theatre, Mainz – One of the largest Roman theatre ruins north of the Alps, located beside Mainz's Roman Theatre station, with free views over the excavation…
• Cathedral and Diocesan Museum Mainz – A religious art museum beside the cathedral cloister, holding cathedral treasures, medieval sculpture and works by the Naumburg Master.
• St. Peter's Church, Mainz – One of Mainz's most ornate Rococo churches, with a twin-towered facade and pink ceiling paintings carefully restored after the war.
• Electoral Palace, Mainz – A red sandstone Renaissance palace on the Rhine, once the residence of the archbishop-elector of Mainz, now used for conferences and events.
• Mainz Carnival Museum – Tells the story of Mainz's two-hundred-year carnival tradition through costumes, medals, float models and old photographs, giving a taste o…
• Schillerplatz & Carnival Fountain – A baroque square ringed by aristocratic mansions, with a bronze fountain crowded with about 200 carnival figures, the opening venue of Main…
• Old Jewish Cemetery Mainz (Judensand) – Part of the UNESCO World Heritage “SchUM Sites,” preserving Jewish gravestones dating back to the 11th century and one of Europe's oldest J…
• New Synagogue Mainz – A contemporary building completed in 2010, its green ceramic facade folding into the shape of the Hebrew word for “blessing”; Germany's mos…
• Kupferberg Sparkling Wine Cellars – A long-established sparkling wine producer in Mainz, with a cellar of up to seven levels reaching Roman-era foundations, where guided tours…
• Natural History Museum Mainz – The largest natural history museum in Rhineland-Palatinate, where the Deinotherium skeleton and Rhenish Hesse fossils are the favorites of…

Where to eat

• Weinstube Hottum – Old-town wine tavern on record since 1791, ranked first as Mainz's best Weinstube in the Merkurist readers' poll.
• Weinhaus Michel – Family wine house in the Old Town that makes its own wine, ranked second in the readers' poll, famous for its cheese sp…
• Weinhaus Lösch – Long-established wine tavern dating to 1907, with century-old carved oak wall panelling; the classic place to try bread…
• Eisgrub Bräu – Mainz's first brewpub, brewing unfiltered beer on site and serving German pub food, open until late every day.
• Steins Traube – Michelin one-star restaurant run by one family for six generations in Finthen, evolving from a village tavern into refi…

Itineraries

• Rhine, Moselle, Saar & Heidelberg – A grand self-drive loop starting from Frankfurt, winding along the Rhine, Moselle, and Saar rivers to Heidelberg.