Sights in Hesse
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National Park
Hesse's first national park, established in 2004, encompasses one of the largest extant red beech forests in Central Europe, the Kellerwald, and the Edersee, a serpentine artificial reservoir 55km northeast of Marburg and about the same distance southwest of Kassel. Some 400 springs feed creeks that, as one brochure puts it, are 'a true paradise for the fire salamander'. Larger land animals include red deer; overhead you may see eagles and honey buzzards and, at night, various species of bat.
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Kloster Lorsch
Founded in the 8th century, and Unesco-listed in 1991, Kloster Lorsch was an important religious site in its heyday, especially for the Carolingian dynasty. A visit to the monastery makes a nice excursion from Darmstadt, despite few of the original buildings having been preserved (the Königshalle and Altenmünster are the most accessible). The complex has three museum sections - one on the history of the abbey, the second on life in Hesse, and a third on tobacco, which was cultivated in Lorsch in the late 17th century.
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Ig-Farbenhaus
Set in Frankfurt's leafy Westend, the monumental, Bauhaus-influenced IG-Farbenhaus, seven storeys tall and slightly curved, was erected in 1931 as the prestigious headquarters of IG-Farben, the mammoth German chemicals conglomerate whose constituents included Agfa, BASF, Bayer and Hoechst. White-collar staff based in this building carried out the banal work of coordinating the production of the company's most notorious product, Zyklon-B, the killing agent used in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
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Wollheim Memorial
Facing the southwest end of the building, the Wollheim Memorial, in a little pavilion marked '107984', screens 24 interviews (also viewable on the excellent website) with former slave labourers who worked in IG-Farben factories such as IG Auschwitz, so big that it had its very own corporate concentration camp, Buna/Monowitz. Slave labourers who lived to write about their experiences with IG-Farben include Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel.
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Town Palace
Fulda's 'Baroque City' tag rings true at the palace (Stadtschloss). The era's extravagance amazes in the Speigelkabinett (Chamber of Mirrors) and grandiose Fürstensaal, a banquet hall decorated with reliefs of tipsy-looking wine queens. Climb the tower for a town vista. Also, there are pretty views from the Green Room over the gardens to the Orangerie .
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Cathedral Museum
Don't pass through Fulda without visiting this museum (Dommuseum). Its treasures include Jewish gravestones (in the artefact-packed front yard), the spectacular Silver Altar and a spooky thing reported to be part of the skull of St Boniface (it even wears a headdress). Look through the cloakroom's glass floor to the foundations of the original basilica.
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St Michael's Church
Fulda's history started here. A still-standing reminder of the abbey that made this town, this remarkable church (Michaelskirche) was the monastic burial chapel. Beneath classic witch's-hat towers, a Carolingian rotunda and crypt recall Fulda's flourishing Middle Ages, when the abbey scriptorium churned out top-flight illuminated manuscripts.
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Museum Wiesbaden
Renovated in 2006, the Museum Wiesbaden specialises in 20th-century painting, sculpture and installations, including works by Russian expressionist Alexei Jawlensky (1864-1941), who lived in Wiesbaden for the last 20 years of his life. New sections on pre-20th-century art and the natural sciences are set to open in 2011.
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Märchenstrasse
The 600km Märchenstrasse is one of Germany's most popular tourist routes. It's made up of cities, towns and hamlets in four states (Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bremen), many of them associated with the works of Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm.
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Dom
Inside the baroque Dom, built from 1704 to 1712, you'll find gilded furnishings, plenty of putti (figures of infant boys), some dramatic statues (eg to the left of the altar) and the tomb of St Boniface, who died a martyr in 754.
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Stadtschloss
Across the street from the tourist office, the Stadtschloss was built from 1706 to 1721 as the residence of Fulda's prince-abbots. It now houses the city administration and function rooms.
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Opelbad
Attractions up top of Neroberg include the Opelbad, a Bauhaus-style outdoor swimming pool complex built in 1934, grassy expanses for sunbathing and one of the oldest vineyards in the area.
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Dommuseum
Treasures in the Dommuseum, reached through a delightful garden, include the spectacular Silver Altar and a spooky object reported to be part of the skull of St Boniface.
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Museum
The most interesting fossils excavated are now held in Messel's own museum in a pretty half-timbered house. For tours of the site itself, contact the Messel museum.
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Michaelskirche
A short walk north is the chapel-sized Michaelskirche, easy to spot thanks to its round witch's-hat tower. The rotunda and crypt are 9th-century Carolingian.
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Organ Recitals
There are organ recitals at the Dom at noon every Saturday during May, June, September, October and December.
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Kurhaus Wiesbaden
The neoclassical Kurhaus Wiesbaden, built in 1907, serves as the city's convention centre.
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Historische Räume
Worth visiting are the ornate Historische Räume, which is a grandiose banquet hall.
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Russian Orthodox Church
The five-domed Russian Orthodox Church was built between 1847 and 1855.
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Frauen Museum
The Frauen Museum, founded in 1984, has exhibits on and by women.
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