Mainz · DE
Mainz Highlights: Cathedral, Gutenberg & Chagall
Red-sandstone cathedral, Gutenberg's printing revolution, Chagall's blue windows and the electors' palace — one old-town walk by the Rhine.
What's the walk about?
Welcome to Mainz, the two-thousand-year-old cathedral city on the Rhine and the place where Johannes Gutenberg changed the world with movable type. This gentle old-town walk threads together the essential Mainz: Marc Chagall's luminous blue windows in St. Stephan, the storybook half-timbered Kirschgarten, the market square beneath the towering Romanesque cathedral of St. Martin, the printing treasures of the Gutenberg Museum, the medieval Wood Tower, and the Rhine promenade leading to the red-sandstone Electoral Palace. From the hilltop church to the electors' residence on the river, you'll walk through faith, printing, art, and empire — all within an easy stroll of the Altstadt.
What you'll see
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1
Church of St. Stephan
Church
A thousand-year-old hilltop church flooded with luminous blue light from Marc Chagall's stained glass. It is the only church in all of Germany that the great artist ever agreed to fill with his windows.
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2
Kirschgarten
square
A picture-perfect square of leaning half-timbered houses gathered around a Madonna fountain, tucked into the heart of the Mainz old town. It is one of the city's most photographed corners and feels like stepping straight into a storybook.
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3
Mainz Cathedral (Mainzer Dom, St. Martin)
cathedral
A colossus of deep red sandstone that has watched over Mainz for a thousand years. This Romanesque giant crowned German kings and remains the beating heart of the old town.
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4
Marktplatz
square
Mainz's lively market square unfolds in the shadow of the cathedral, framed by pastel facades and centred on a soaring red sandstone column. It has been the beating heart of the city for over a thousand years.
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5
Gutenberg Museum
Museum
One of the world's oldest museums of printing, standing on Liebfrauenplatz just steps from the cathedral. It guards two original Gutenberg Bibles and a working reconstruction of the workshop where the modern book was born.
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6
Holzturm (Wood Tower)
tower
A slender Gothic watchtower rising from the old Rhine wall, once a city gate and a grim prison. Its most notorious inmate was the legendary bandit Schinderhannes.
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7
Rhine Promenade (Fischtorplatz)
Promenade
A breezy riverside walkway where the old town meets the wide silver sweep of the Rhine. Named after a long vanished medieval fish gate, it is Mainz's favourite spot to watch the barges drift by.
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8
Kurfürstliches Schloss (Electoral Palace)
Palace
A monumental red sandstone palace on the bank of the Rhine, glowing rose and gold in the afternoon light. Once the residence of Mainz's powerful prince electors, it is one of the last great works of German Renaissance architecture.
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