Highlights
Frankfurt's top attractions
What makes Frankfurt unmistakable - from the Imperial Cathedral and St. Paul's Church to the Main Tower and the Museum Embankment. Here are 18 landmarks and places worth seeing on your visit.
Almost everything on this list sits inside a compact core you can walk in a day: the Old Town around the Römerberg, the banking district a few blocks north, and the museum embankment across the Main. Tap any card for the full story, opening hours where we have them, and hotels within walking distance.
Landmark
Römer
Frankfurt's city hall since 1405 and the postcard image of the city. Three stepped gables facing the Römerberg square.
Church
Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus
The Imperial Cathedral, where Holy Roman Emperors were crowned from 1562 to 1792. Its red sandstone tower defines the Old Town skyline.
Observation deck
Main Tower
The one Frankfurt skyscraper with a public observation deck. 656 feet of blue glass in the middle of the banking district.
Landmark
Paulskirche
The birthplace of German democracy. The first freely elected national assembly met in this oval church in 1848.
Museum
Goethe-Haus
The house where Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in 1749, rebuilt after the war and furnished with the family's original possessions.
Park
Palmengarten
One of Europe's largest botanical gardens: 54 acres of greenhouses, ponds and themed gardens in the Westend.
Museum district
Museumsufer
The Museum Embankment: a mile of major museums lined up along both banks of the Main, anchored by the Städel.
Landmark
Eiserner Steg
The iron footbridge over the Main, hung with thousands of love locks. Best free skyline view in Frankfurt.
Shopping street
Zeil
Germany's busiest shopping street, running between the Hauptwache and the Konstablerwache in the heart of downtown.
Landmark
Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange, tenth largest in the world by market capitalization, with the famous bull and bear statues out front.
Museum
Senckenberg Naturmuseum
Europe's largest dinosaur exhibition and Germany's second-largest natural history museum. The best rainy-day stop for families.
Zoo
Frankfurter Zoo
Germany's second-oldest zoo, founded in 1858, with 4,500 animals a short subway ride east of downtown.
Museum
Schirn Kunsthalle
Frankfurt's leading venue for temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, tucked between the Römer and the cathedral.
Landmark
Hauptwache and Katharinenkirche
Frankfurt's central square: a Baroque guardhouse turned cafe, the city's largest Protestant church, and its busiest transit hub.
Church
Alte Nikolaikirche
The small red church on the Römerberg, one of the few Old Town buildings to survive the war. Its 47-bell carillon rings over the square.
Museum
Museum Angewandte Kunst
Design, craft and fashion across nine centuries, in a white Richard Meier building wrapped around a neoclassical villa.
Landmark
Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen
The Fountain of Justice at the center of the Römerberg, crowned by a bronze Lady Justice. Standing here since 1611.
Landmark
Alte Oper
The grand old opera house of 1880, rebuilt from a ruin by public subscription and reopened in 1981 as a concert hall.
Stay close to the sights
Most of these landmarks cluster around the Old Town and the Main riverbank. Book a central hotel and you can walk between them.
Image credits: authors, licenses and sources of all photos are listed on the image credits page.