A tour of discovery to great inventions

Mainz is self-confident and proud of its rich culture as one of Germany's oldest cities. You can experience four thousand years of writing from all over the world at the Johannes Gutenberg Museum, where the "Man of the Millennium's" workshop has been reconstructed. The highlights are two copies of the world-famous 42-line Gutenberg Bible.

Mainz's Marktplatz (Mainz Market Square) is a hub of city life. The Dom (Cathedral) is still almost completely enclosed by surrounding buildings that grew up over the centuries, creating a red-tinted sandstone "mountain" of a cathedral. Many of the out-buildings were constructed in the Baroque period.

The Kurfürstliches Schloss (Electoral Palace) was built from 1729-1740 in a style heavily influenced by French Baroque architecture. The site the Prince elector chose for the palace was in close vicinity to his residence, the Dom (Cathedral). This means you won't have far to walk from the cathedral to another one of Mainz's main attractions. The east wing of the Kurfürstliches Schloss (Electoral Palace) is one of the last examples of German Renaissance architecture. It is a regal building of red sandstone with turrets at each corner and beautiful detailing around the windows. It now houses the renowned Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (Roman-Germanic Central Museum).

Mainz's most popular area for a stroll ist the Augustinerstrasse (Augistinian Street), the city's main business thoroughfare until the 17th century. Surrounded by boutiques, cafes, pubs, and residential buildings, the magnificent façade of the towering Augustinerkirche (St. Augustine's Church) stands out. Venture inside to explore the impressive gilded interior in its original state, including ceiling frescoes depicting the life of St. Augustine and the history of the order which had its home on "Augustinerstrasse" since the 13th Century.

"This cathedral, towering in all its might and grandeur above the Rhine plain, would have remained in my memory forever, even if I had never seen it again," wrote the authoress Anna Seghers. The massive "Martinsdom" (St. Martin's Cathedral) has determined the course of Mainz's history and still gives Mainz its character to this day, a thousand years after its construction. Mainz, at the crossroads of the Old World's nations, became the ecclesiastical center north of the Alps as of 746/47, through the work of St. Boniface. It acquired the title of "Holy See" during the rule of Willigis (975-1011).

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200,000 visitors a year cannot be wrong: the "Stephanskirche" (St. Stephen's Church) is a major attraction. Tourists from all over the world make the pilgrimage to the "Stephansberg" (St. Stephen's Mountain), to the blue glowing stained glass windows by the artist Marc Chagall. The reconstruction and renovation of the Gothic church, which was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War, also meant its revival.

Over 1,000 years ago, in 990, Willigis, archbishop of Mainz and archchancellor of the Empire, had a collegiate church built to be "the Empire's Place of Prayer." The constructor of the cathedral was himself laid to rest here in 1011. The construction of the basilica in Ottonian, pre-Romanesque style, on the foundations of which a new structure in Gothic style was erected, begun in 1290, ended in 1338. When a nearby gun powder store blew up in 1857, St. Stephen's was also badly damaged.

The baroque decoration was removed during the reconstruction and incomplete renovation. Today this house of God presents itself as a clearly arranged hall church with three naves in which the Gothic vaults have not as yet been restored. The red sandstone of the supporting construction members provides a charming contrast to the inner walls, which are white-washed. The building's 66-meter-high, spacious tower probably still dates back to Willigis's original structure up to the level of the pointed arch frieze. A wide crack in the steeple was already repaired in 1947, but it was only in 1962 (the city's 2000th anniversary) that the dome and lantern were reconstructed.

Up until 1911, a lookout lived high above the roofs in a specially furnished dwelling - even triplets were once born here. The fire watch was organized in the city in 1559. The "Stephanskirche" (St. Stephen's Church) is the only German church for which the Jewish artist Marc Chagall (1887 -1985), who was born in Russia, but spent the longest period of his life in France, designed stained glass windows. Blue light shines into the church through these windows. This light brings the angels and other biblical images to life. "These colors address our vital consciousness directly because they express optimism, hope, and the love of life," said Monsignor Klaus Mayer, who through his books and meditations promotes Chagall's work. He contacted Chagall in 1973 and persuaded "the master of color and biblical tidings" to design a symbol of Jewish-Christian unity and peace amongst all peoples in the East Chancel.

In 1978, the first Chagall window by the then 91-year-old artist was fitted. A further eight followed, six of which are located in the east chancel. Chagall, who, although an honorary citizen of Mainz, never actually visited the city, completed his last stained glass window shortly before his death at the age of 97. Seventeen further, deliberately more modest windows in the side aisles by Charles Marq, from the Atelier Jacques Simon in Reims, serve to lead up to the masterpieces. Marq worked together with Chagall for 28 years.

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Throughout the Roman Empire thermal baths and amphitheaters were to be found even in the smallest cities, both physical health and hygiene and arts and entertainment being accorded high value and a necessity for civilized life. Mainz, known as Mogontiacum, Rome's most important city in Germania, was no exception. In fact, the stage and auditorium of the "Römisches Theater" (Roman Theater) was the largest anywhere north of the Alps. More than 10,000 audience members could be accommodated. The theater proportions were gigantic: The stage measured 42 meters - 136.5-feet - wide. The audience area was 116 meters/377-feet -in width : one-and-a-half football fields!

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Oil lamps cast a flickering light onto the walls of the temple, the scent of incense and burned fruit hangs heavily in the air ... The Mainz earth has brought a little more light into the Romans' everyday rituals in Mogontiacum. In 2000, parts of a temple dedicated to the Ancient Egyptian deity Isis and the Oriental Mater Magna were found, which was probably in use until the 3rd century. A sensational view of religious cults in the Roman period thus became possible.

The foundations of the "Isis und Mater Magna Heiligtum" (Isis and Mater Magna Shrine) were discovered during excavation works for a shopping arcade. Walls, stones and finds were stored carefully for three years. In 2003, the temple was reconstructed at the place where it was found in the presentation room of the "Taberna archaeologica". 

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The "Neue Jüdische Synagoge" (New Jewish Synagogue) and community center, (the cornerstone of which was laid in November 2008), the profile of which is an outline of the letters of the Hebrew word "Kadduscha", (meaning to sanctify or elevate or dedicate something mundane to a higher calling,) exemplifies the revivification of Jewish life in Mainz. Its unique form is ultra modern yet the individual letter components are ancient. The Sanctuary faces East towards Jerusalem and the dawning of a new day, thus symbolizing a new beginning and faith in the future.

Today the "Judengasse" (Jews' Alley), the ancient "Jüdischer Friedhof" (Jewish Cemetery), the commemorative sites of the beautiful Orthodox synagogue at the "Flachsmarktstrasse" (Flax Market Street) as well as the central synagogue on "Hindenburgstrasse" (Hindenburg Street) which were demolished by the Nazis recall the ancient and modern history of the Jews here. Today, some 900 Jews reside in Mainz, roughly a seventh of the number who once lived here.

The Jewish community today employs a rabbi. There was a Jewish hospital from 1904 until the Nazis made it into an old people's home for Jews prior to their deportation. The former hospital was destroyed by bombs and has not been replaced. Kosher groceries are obtainable. Most of the Jews are from Eastern Europe and their migration to Mainz following German reunification and the collapse of the Soviet Union has enabled the decimated community to continue and grow.


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The modern glass entrance behind the red sand-stone portal gives a free view of the projecting baroque adornments. The "Augustinerkirche" (St. Augustine's Church) is located at the heart of the Old Town, remained mostly unscathed during the Second World War and therefore offers an exceptional display of splendor in original condition. The mendicant order of Augustinian hermits had a monastery in the "Augustinerstrasse" (Augustinian Street) from 1260 until 1803. Construction of the church was begun by the stonemason Johann Georg Schrantz in 1768. Today, the church of the diocesan seminary for Roman Catholic priests is located here. Its interior design is so rich because the patron generously encouraged the work of the Bavarian craftsmen specially hired for the task. The facade displays the vivid forms of the Main-Franconian and South German baroque.

The painter Johann Baptist Enderle, from Donauwoerth, glorified the life of St. Augustine in large ceiling paintings. Johann Heinrich Stumm built the divided organ in 1773. It is one of the last remaining instruments of this "organ-builder dynasty."

A lime-wood sculpture of Mary with the Child Jesus (unusual in its brightness for a Gothic work of art, and categorized as "soft style"), smiles out of a niche between the south side altars. This highly acclaimed miraculous image was saved from the burning "Liebfrauenkirche (Church of Our Beloved Lady) in 1793.

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All the glory of the rococo style appears to be gathered in the "Peterskirche" (St. Peter's Church), where it shines in glittering gold, as bright as the day it was constructed. With good reason: the elegant twin onion-towered church was returned to the parish after a ten-year restoration in 1989. One can discover not only art treasures of previous centuries here, but also present day works of art.

The Bavarian artist Karl Manninger and his pupil Hermenegild Peiker pravided the colorful painting inside the church. The fresco paintings of Joseph Appiani (originating between 1752 and 1755), which had been destroyed during the war, were the historical inspiration for Manninger's work. The extensive paintings relate the life and legend of the Apostle Peter. One original is preserved by the entrance. The church was founded in 944 by Archbishop Friedrich of Lorraine. The court architect, Johann Valentin Thomann, constructed the new church on the site of the demolished "Marienkirche" (Church of St. Mary).

The original late baroque elegance was emulated during the historical restoration. The richly adorned white-gold wooden pulpit from Johann Förster's workshop and some luxuriant, decorated altars, including the sculptor Hans Backoffen's 16th century road altar, are to be found in this church. The Palatinate sculptor Gernot Rumpf's altar of 1989, displaying the "human flesh" wriggling in a bronze net, is new to the church.

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The statue of the "Gutenberg-Denkmal" (Gutenberg Memorial) erected in this prominent location was unveiled in 1837. The larger-than-life-sized bronze statue was designed by the Danish sculptor Bertil Thorvbaldsen whose disciple H.W. Bissen cast the work. It shows the great inventor in a typical pose, commanding respect, with his Bible and his printing type in hand.

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Intended as a representative counterweight to the "Dom" (Cathedral), the 80 meter high dome of the "Christuskirche" (Christ Church) rises architecturally above the ensemble of church towers at the city center. The history of the "Christuskirche" is closely linked with that of the Protestants of Mainz, for with this church they set a sign of their self-assurance.

In 1830, the Protestant parish, numbering just some 1200 members at that time, purchased the "Johanniskirche" (St. John's Church). 100 years later, nearly one third of the population of Mainz, over 30,000, were Protestant. The expansion of the city by the New City at the end of the 19th century came just at the right moment in the search for a new main church. With the "Kaiserstrasse" (Emperor's Street), a splendid boulevard was constructed, in the middle of which the church designed by the City Architect Eduard Kreyssig, unavoidably attracts attention, even today.

Kreyssig designed the building in the style of the Italian High Renaissance - the dome recalls St. Peter's in Rome. When the "Christuskirche" (Christ Church) was consecrated in 1903 after a seven year period of construction, the city had gained a new landmark. Badly damaged in 1945, reconstruction began in 1952. Today not only do divine services take place in the church, but also events, exhibitions and concerts.

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