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Frankfurt am Main

Glinting with glass, steel and concrete skyscrapers, Frankfurt-on-the-Main (pronounced ‘mine’) is unlike any other German city. The focal point of a conurbation of 5.5 million inhabitants, ‘Mainhattan’ is a high-powered finance and business hub, home to one of the world’s largest stock exchanges and the gleaming headquarters of the European Central Bank, and famously hosts some of the world's most important trade fairs, attracting thousands of business travellers.

Yet at its heart, Frankfurt is an unexpectedly traditional and charming city, with half-timbered buildings huddled in its quaint medieval Altstadt (old town), cosy apple-wine taverns serving hearty regional food, village-like neighbourhoods filled with outdoor cafes, boutiques and street art, and beautiful parks, gardens and riverside paths. The city's cache of museums is second in Germany only to Berlin’s, and its nightlife and entertainment scenes are bolstered by a spirited student population.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Frankfurt am Main.

  • See

    Städel Museum

    Founded in 1815, this world-renowned art gallery has an outstanding collection of European art from masters including Dürer, Rembrandt, Rubens, Renoir, Picasso and Cézanne, dating from the Middle Ages to today. More contemporary works by artists including Francis Bacon and Gerhard Richter are showcased in a subterranean extension lit by circular skylights. Admission prices can vary according to temporary exhibitions. Queues can be lengthy, so save time by pre-booking tickets online.

  • See

    Kaiserdom

    Frankfurt’s red-sandstone cathedral is dominated by a 95m-high Gothic tower, which can be climbed via 328 steps. Construction began in the 13th century; from 1356 to 1792, the Holy Roman Emperors were elected (and, after 1562, consecrated and crowned) in the Wahlkapelle at the end of the right aisle (look for the 'skull' altar). The cathedral was rebuilt both after an 1867 fire and after the bombings of 1944, which left it a burnt-out shell.

  • See

    Museum für Moderne Kunst

    The outstanding Museum of Modern Art focuses on European and American art from the 1960s to the present, with frequent temporary exhibits. The permanent collection (not always on display) includes works by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and Joseph Beuys. Free English-language tours on varying topics take place at 4pm every Saturday. The main premises are referred to as MMK1; there are another two exhibition spaces, MMK2 (in the TaunusTurm at Taunustor 1) and MMK3 (opposite MMK 1 at Domstrasse 3).

  • See

    Senckenberg Museum

    Life-size dinosaur mock-ups guard the front of Frankfurt’s natural history museum. Inside the early 1900s neo-baroque building, exhibits cover palaeontology (including fossils from the Grube Messel site), biology and geology. Most have English signs.

  • See

    Römerberg

    The Römerberg is Frankfurt’s old central square. Ornately gabled half-timbered buildings, reconstructed after WWII, give an idea of how beautiful the city’s medieval core once was. In the square's centre is the Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen.

  • See

    Museum Judengasse

    Most of Frankfurt’s medieval Jewish ghetto – Europe's first, dating from 1460 – on narrow Judengasse (Jews’ Street) was destroyed by a French bombardment in 1796, but you can get a sense of local Jewish life during the 15th to 18th centuries from the excavated remains of houses and ritual baths. Laws confining Frankfurt’s Jews to the ghetto were repealed in 1811. Renovated in 2016, the museum here spotlights the former residents' interactions with Frankfurt’s Christian residents, the city council and the emperor.

  • See

    IG-Farbenhaus

    The monumental seven-storey IG-Farbenhaus was erected in 1931 as the headquarters of IG-Farben (pronounced ‘ee geh far-behn’), the mammoth German chemicals conglomerate whose constituent companies included Agfa, BASF, Bayer and Hoechst. After Hitler took power, Jewish scientists and executives were fired, and the company’s products soon became central to the Nazi war effort. Inside, on the 1st to 5th floors at cross wing Q4, you can check out an informative historical exhibit (in English and German) with photographs and illustrations.

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    Goethe-Haus

    Completely rebuilt after WWII (only the cellar survived Allied bombing), the birthplace of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is furnished in the haute-bourgeois style of Goethe’s time, based on an inventory taken when Goethe’s family sold the property. One of the few pieces that actually belonged to the great writer, philosopher and statesman is a puppet theatre given to him at age four. The Goethe-Museum (included in admission) displays seminal paintings from Goethe's era.

  • See

    Alte Oper

    Inaugurated in 1880, the Italian Renaissance-style Alte Oper anchors the western end of the Zeil-Fressgass pedestrian zone. Burnt out in 1944, it narrowly avoided being razed and replaced with 1960s cubes. It was finally reconstructed between 1976 and 1981 to resemble the original, with statues of Goethe and Mozart gracing its ornate facade. Other than the mosaics in the lobby, the interior – closed except during concerts – is modern.