Frankfurt: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Frankfurt had the largest half-timbered old town in Germany and lost all of it in two nights of March 1944 — about a thousand buildings. What stands on the Römerberg now is reconstruction: six houses rebuilt in the 1980s, and thirty-five more finished in 2018 on the exact medieval street lines, fifteen of them copied from measured drawings and the rest new buildings held to the old scale. Whether that is honest is a live argument here. Two hours, flat.
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A short history of Frankfurt
Frankfurt is first mentioned in 794, when Charlemagne convened a synod here. From 1356 the kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected here, and from 1562 they were also crowned here. In 1462 the city's Jews were confined to a single street, the Judengasse, and from it came the Rothschild family in the 18th century. In 1749 Goethe was born in the city. In 1848 the first elected German parliament met in St Paul's Church. In 1929 Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt. Most of the old town was destroyed in the bombing of 1944, and the city was rebuilt as a financial centre. In 1998 the European Central Bank was established here.
The ten best sights in Frankfurt
1RömerbergThe medieval square, and every house on it is a post-1980 reconstruction
2RömerFree from outside, the city hall since 1405, and the Kaisersaal is 3 euro
3Frankfurt CathedralFree, where ten Holy Roman Emperors were crowned, and the tower is 3 euro
4New Old TownFree, 35 houses finished in 2018 on the medieval street plan, and 15 are exact copies
5PaulskircheFree, the first German parliament sat here in 1848, and it is a hall not a church now
6Goethe House10 euro, the house he was born in, rebuilt from rubble with the original furniture
7Alte NikolaikircheFree, on the Römerberg, and the carillon plays at 9.05, 12.05 and 17.05
8KatharinenkircheFree, on the Hauptwache, and Goethe was baptised and confirmed in it
9DeutschordenskircheFree, across the river, and the Teutonic Order held this bank for 600 years
10KarmeliterklosterFree, and the 1520s wall painting inside is the largest north of the Alps
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Frankfurt →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Frankfurt:
Free walking tours in Frankfurt
The old town that was rebuilt twice
Frankfurt had the largest half-timbered old town in Germany and lost all of it in two nights of March 1944 — about a thousand buildings. What stands on the Römerberg now is reconstruction: six houses rebuilt in the 1980s, and thirty-five more finished in 2018 on the exact medieval street lines, fifteen of them copied from measured drawings and the rest new buildings held to the old scale. Whether that is honest is a live argument here. Two hours, flat.
- Römerberg · The six stepped-gable houses on the east side are known as the Ostzeile and they were rebuilt between 1981 and 1983 after a referendum — the city had planned a modern building there and the public voted it down. The originals burned in 1944 and the reconstruction used photographs and the surviving cellar walls.
- Römer · The city bought these three merchant houses in 1405 and has used them as the town hall ever since, which makes it one of the longest-serving city halls in Europe. The Kaisersaal upstairs holds portraits of all fifty-two Holy Roman Emperors, painted in the nineteenth century, and the last nine were crowned in this city.
- Frankfurt Cathedral · It is called a cathedral and never was one — no bishop ever sat here. It is a parish church that got the title because from 1356 the Golden Bull made it the place where the emperor was elected, and from 1562 where he was crowned. Ten coronations happened in a building that technically ranks below a dozen others in the region.
- Paulskirche · The first freely elected German parliament met in this round church in 1848 and spent a year drafting a constitution with a bill of rights. It failed — the King of Prussia refused the crown it offered him — but the text was used again in 1919 and 1949, and the building was rebuilt in 1948 as a hall with no religious function at all.
- New Old Town · Thirty-five houses between the cathedral and the Römer, finished in 2018 at a cost of about two hundred million euros, on the footprint of the medieval lanes. A 1970s concrete administration block was demolished to make room. Fifteen are exact reconstructions from measured drawings and twenty are new designs held to the old plot widths.
- Judengasse Museum · The Jewish quarter here was walled from 1462 and the gates were locked at night and all day Sunday — about three thousand people in a single lane a few metres wide, which made it the most crowded place in Europe. The Rothschilds began here. The excavated foundations of five houses and two ritual baths sit under a municipal office built in 1987.
Money and the towers
Frankfurt is the only German city with a skyline, and the reason is a decision: when the country was divided after the war the Bundesbank was put here rather than in Berlin, the commercial banks followed, and the city zoned a corridor for high-rise while everywhere else capped building heights. The European Central Bank arrived in 1998. Nicknames here are affectionate and mostly about food — locals call it Mainhattan. Two hours.
- Main Tower · Two hundred metres and the only bank tower in the city with a public viewing deck, which was a planning condition: the city granted the height in exchange for public access. The lift takes forty-five seconds and the deck is open, not glazed, so it closes in high wind.
- Commerzbank Tower · Norman Foster finished it in 1997 at two hundred and fifty-nine metres, and it was the first high-rise designed to be naturally ventilated: nine four-storey winter gardens spiral up the building, every office has an opening window, and the central atrium works as a chimney. It was called the world’s first ecological skyscraper at the time.
- Eschenheimer Turm · A city gate from 1428 standing alone among the bank towers, and it survived because of Napoleon: when the fortifications were demolished in 1806 the French administrator ordered this one tower kept. The nine holes in the weathervane are said to be from a poacher who shot them there to win a pardon.
- European Central Bank · The tower is built around the Großmarkthalle, the 1928 wholesale market hall, which is a listed building and could not be removed — so it was restored and the glass tower rises through and over it. The hall has a second history: between 1941 and 1945 around ten thousand Jews from Frankfurt were assembled in its basement before deportation, and a memorial marks it.
- Alte Oper · Opened in 1880, burned out in an air raid in 1944, and stood as a ruin for thirty-seven years while the city argued. A citizens’ campaign raised a large part of the money and it reopened in 1981 — as a concert hall, with a completely modern interior behind the restored facade. It is not an opera house and has not been one since 1944.
- Eiserner Steg · Built in 1868 by citizens who paid for it themselves because the city would not — it was a toll bridge for its first years. The Greek inscription across the arch is a line from the Odyssey: "sailing on the wine-dark sea to men of foreign speech." It was added in 1993 and nobody is sure who chose it.
Sachsenhausen, cider and the museum bank
The south bank is a different city. It has the cider taverns, which are an institution with their own rules — the drink comes in a ribbed glass called a Gerippte, from a blue-and-grey stoneware jug called a Bembel, and the tables are shared. It also has twelve museums in a row along the river, a cluster created deliberately in the 1980s by one city planner. Two and a half hours, and the taverns open at five.
- Museumsufer · Twelve museums on one kilometre of riverbank, and it was a single policy: in 1980 the culture chief Hilmar Hoffmann set out to put a museum in every surviving nineteenth-century villa on this stretch, under the slogan culture for all. Eight new museums opened in nine years, each one in or behind an existing house.
- Städel Museum · Founded in 1815 by the will of Johann Friedrich Städel, a banker who left his house, his collection and his fortune to a foundation owned by the citizens rather than the state — it is still a private civic institution. The underground extension of 2012 is lit by one hundred and ninety-five round skylights set into the lawn above it.
- Liebieghaus · A villa built in 1896 by a Bohemian textile baron, now holding five thousand years of sculpture. The part worth knowing is the research: the museum ran a project that reconstructed the original paint on ancient Greek and Roman statues, and the results — bright, patterned, unlike the white marble everyone pictures — travelled the world as an exhibition.
- Deutschordenskirche · The Teutonic Order held this bank of the river from 1221, which is why Sachsenhausen developed separately from the city opposite and kept its own character. The order was a crusading military institution that ended up as a landowner here for six centuries; the church and its commandery buildings are what is left.
- Alt-Sachsenhausen · The cider taverns here follow rules that are not written down: you share a table, you order by the jug and not the glass, and the standard food is Handkäs mit Musik — a sour milk cheese with onion, oil and vinegar, where the music is what the onions do to you later. A green pine wreath over the door means a new batch has been tapped.
- Schweizer Straße · The other half of Sachsenhausen, and the division is sharp: the narrow lanes behind you are the drinking quarter and this street is where people actually live, with food shops, cafés and the oldest surviving cider tavern on it. Locals who drink cider seriously come here rather than to the lanes.
Getting to Frankfurt and getting around
- Frankfurt Airport · 11 kilometres out, the busiest in Germany, and the S8 takes 11 minutes
- Hauptbahnhof · 25 platforms, and most long-distance trains in Germany pass through it
- Hauptwache · The underground crossroads of the city; every line meets here
- Konstablerwache · The other interchange, and the Thursday and Saturday farmers’ market is above it
Cheap eats in Frankfurt
Frankfurt drinks apple wine, not beer, and the rules around it are fixed: it comes in a ribbed glass called a Gerippte — the ribs are there so a greasy hand keeps hold of it — poured from a blue-and-grey stoneware jug called a Bembel, and the tables are shared with whoever is already sitting there. The food beside it is short: Handkäs mit Musik, a sour-milk cheese under onions in oil and vinegar; Grüne Soße, a cold green sauce of seven named herbs that Goethe is said to have liked; and Schnitzel. Six to fifteen euro.
- Adolf Wagner · About 2 euro a glass, cash, and closed in the afternoon
- Zum Gemalten Haus · About 15 euro for a plate, closed Monday, and no bookings
- Dauth-Schneider · About 18 euro, the large courtyard, and this is the easy one to get into
- Lorsbacher Thal · About 20 euro, and the tasting flight is the way in
- Kleinmarkthalle · Closed Sunday, and the Saturday wine bar fills by ten
- Konstablerwache market · Thursday and Saturday, regional producers, and the cider stand is where people stand
- Fressgass · Its real name is Kalbächer Gasse; the nickname means guzzle alley and it is all food
- Berger Straße · Three kilometres of eating in Bornheim, under 15 euro, and locals rather than visitors
Museums in Frankfurt
Twelve museums stand in a row on the south bank of the Main, and they are there because of one decision: in 1980 the city’s culture chief set out to put a museum into every surviving nineteenth-century villa on that stretch. Eight opened in nine years. The Städel is the serious one and it is privately owned by its citizens, not the state — a banker left it to them in 1815.
- Städel Museum · 18 euro, closed Monday, and three hours is realistic
- Liebieghaus · 12 euro, and it is never busy
- Goethe House · 10 euro, closed Monday, and the painting gallery is included
- Historisches Museum · 10 euro, and the two city models — before 1944 and after — are the thing to find
- Film Museum · 6 euro, the pre-cinema optical toys are the best floor, and there is a cinema downstairs
- Architecture Museum · 5 euro, small, and an hour is enough
- Senckenberg Museum · 12 euro, the largest natural history museum in Germany, and the Messel fossils are unique
- Judengasse Museum · 6 euro, closed Monday, and the Börneplatz memorial is outside
Nature and day trips near Frankfurt
Frankfurt is a small city with an unusually large amount of green: the Stadtwald on the south side is forty-eight square kilometres, one of the biggest city forests in Europe, and the city has owned it since 1372. The Grüngürtel, a green belt of about eight thousand hectares, was made a legal entity in 1991 — it cannot be built on, and it circles the whole city.
- Palmengarten · 7 euro, and the glass houses are the reason to come in winter
- Grüneburgpark · Free, beside the Palmengarten, and there is a Korean garden in one corner
- Mainufer · Free, and the August festival is three days and very crowded
- Lohrberg · Free, an apple-wine garden at the top, and best an hour before sunset
- Stadtwald · Free, 48 square kilometres, city-owned since 1372, and waymarked throughout
- Bethmannpark · Free, and the walled Chinese garden inside it was a gift from a twin city
- Frankfurt Zoo · 13 euro, and the nocturnal house is the part to find
- Großer Feldberg · Free, 879 metres and the highest point of the Taunus, and 30 kilometres out
Things to do in Frankfurt with kids
- Senckenberg Museum · 12 euro, real dinosaur skeletons and a whale hall, and half a day goes fast
- Frankfurt Zoo · 13 euro, and the nocturnal house works in any weather
- Struwwelpeter Museum · 6 euro, in the New Old Town, and it has a workshop room
- Main Tower · 9 euro, the lift takes 45 seconds, and the deck closes in high wind
- Palmengarten · 7 euro, a boating pond, a playground and a miniature railway
- Mainufer · Free, lawns on both banks, and the river boats leave from the Eiserner Steg
- Eiserner Steg · Free, and the river traffic underneath is the entertainment
- Rheinpark boats · From 12 euro, a 50-minute round trip, and it runs from April to October
Nightlife in Frankfurt
The night divides by quarter and they do not overlap. Sachsenhausen is the cider taverns, which empty by eleven. Alt-Sachsenhausen behind them is the loud strip and has a bad reputation locally. Bornheim and the Berger Straße are where people who live here go. And the Bahnhofsviertel — the station quarter — has become, improbably, the best bar district in the city, in streets that are also the red-light district.
- Bahnhofsviertel · Bars from 5 euro, busiest after ten, and it is safe but not pretty
- Alt-Sachsenhausen · The loud lanes, cheap and crowded at weekends, and locals avoid them
- Berger Straße · Three kilometres of bars in Bornheim, and this is where the city actually drinks
- Oosten · About 25 euro, on the river in the Ostend, and the terrace faces the ECB tower
- Weseler Werft · Beer about 4 euro, April to October only, and cash is easier
- Alte Oper · Concert tickets from 25 euro, and the square in front is a meeting point
- Mainufer · Free, drinking in public is legal, and the lawns fill on the first warm night
- Bockenheim · The student quarter, cheap, and the bars are small and local
Holy places in Frankfurt
Frankfurt’s churches are not large and they are not the point — what matters here is that the cathedral elected and crowned the Holy Roman Emperor for five hundred years, and that the city held one of the oldest and most important Jewish communities in Europe until 1938. Both of those are told in buildings that were rebuilt after 1944.
- Frankfurt Cathedral · Free, the tower is 3 euro and 328 steps, and the chapel is to the right of the choir
- Paulskirche · Free, the 1848 parliament, and it has no religious function today
- Westend Synagogue · Visits by arrangement, and there is a security check
- Börneplatz Memorial · Free, always open, and the cemetery gate has limited hours
- Alte Nikolaikirche · Free, on the Römerberg, and the carillon plays three times a day
- Katharinenkirche · Free, the main Lutheran church, and Goethe was baptised in it
- Karmeliterkloster · Free, it is a city archive now, and the cloister is open on weekdays
- Deutschordenskirche · Free, across the river, and the Teutonic Order held this bank for 600 years
Frequently asked questions about Frankfurt
What is there to see in Frankfurt?
The top sights in Frankfurt are Römerberg, Römer and Frankfurt Cathedral. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Frankfurt?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Frankfurt without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Frankfurt?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Frankfurt, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The old town that was rebuilt twice.
How do you get to Frankfurt and get around?
The main ways are Frankfurt Airport, Hauptbahnhof and Hauptwache. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Frankfurt, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Frankfurt that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Frankfurt for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.