Höchst

Höchst sits at the far western edge of Frankfurt, directly on the Main, and holds about 15,600 people on roughly 1.8 square miles. That exposed position on the river once made the town rich and powerful. The Justinuskirche, built in 830, is one of the oldest surviving churches in Germany, and by the year 1000 the settlement, by then called Höchst, belonged to the Electorate of Mainz. The centuries that followed were rough: fire destroyed nearly half the town in 1586, and the Thirty Years' War hit it hard.

The good years came in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Höchst porcelain manufactory was founded in 1746 and its work stands comparison with Meissen, which is more than most German porcelain can claim. A rail connection arrived in 1839. Then, in 1863, came the event that defined the place: the founding of the Farbwerke Höchst dye works, later the Hoechst AG chemicals group. Höchst became a proper town in the Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau in 1885.

The town joined Frankfurt in 1928 but kept a surprising amount of independence, and remained a district seat until 1980. The 1990s were difficult, with a shrinking industrial base and a city development plan from 2006 that has so far delivered less than hoped. None of that touches what brings visitors out here.

What brings visitors is the Altstadt. Höchst has the finest preserved historic town center in Frankfurt, which is not a high bar given what the war did to the rest of the city, but the lanes, the castle, the church and the riverfront genuinely hold up. It is the one outlying district worth a dedicated half day.