Frankfurt
The Frankfurt city, officially known as Frankfurt am Main and nicknamed as “Mainhattan” is a city where curiosity gets its fix. On the one hand, when the city boasts an ultra-modern business hub, with some of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe, it still has the flavor of culture and tradition that comes along with acceptance of every faith and belief. Frankfurt is a city to inhibit rich cultural institutions and numerous trade fairs and business events attract corporate visitors on a regular basis.
The largest financial center on the European continent, yet the smallest metropolis in the world, Frankfurt makes up for the city that offers extensive tours, cultural enjoyment, and attractive shopping trips to the visitors and the citizens along. No matter where you come from, Frankfurt is a place to find people speaking your language and a restaurant that serves your favorite food. Following are few of the treasures of Frankfurt, where you can explore as much as you want while grasping all the beauty of the city
- The Römerberg: An irregularly shaped square, with a Justice Fountain right at its center—is what explains the architecture of Frankfurt's most picturesque public square with busiest pedestrian zone—the Römerberg. The area has many open-fronted shops, faithfully reconstructed in 1954 from the original 15th- to 18th-century floorplans. Ever since the Wertheim House survived the 1944 air raids, that destroyed almost all of old Frankfurt, it became a historic site. Once the scene of splendid banquets, the Old Town Hall, with its Imperial Hall, adds to the beauty of the area, along with other notable buildings like the New Town Hall from 1908, the 14th-century Gothic Church of St. Leonhard, and St. Nicholas Church, with its carillon. The Historical Museum, founded in 1878, through a vast collection of art, screams of Frankfurt's rich cultural history from medieval to modern times, and the six traditional-style buildings of the Ostzeile.
- The Palm Garden: The 54-acre beautiful Palm Garden is the largest botanic garden in the whole Germany. Ever since it’s opening in 1871, it attracted a lot of visitors and some of the top performers from around the world, which the park a talk-of-the-town and more people started to join in. Apart from flaunting a number of greenhouses containing subtropical and tropical plant species, the garden also offers boating, a playground to the children, and a picnic spot to many families.
- Senckenberg Natural History Museum: Prestigious enough to be ranked as one of the most modern museums of natural history in Europe, the Senckenberg Natural History Museum is the second largest of its kind in Germany. The collection of the museum displays planet's biodiversity and the evolution of organisms and is a home to Europe's biggest exhibition of large dinosaurs. The museum is particularly popular among families and inquisitive kids because of its collection and the life-size replica dinosaurs in the museum's forecourt greeting guests. Apart from biodiversity and history of evolution, the museum also holds record in having world's largest collection of stuffed birds. You can choose to have your tour in your preferred language or can also opt to rent audio guides.
- The Hauptwache: The Hauptwache—translated as the Main Guard—is a mix of fine historic buildings and modern structures. The old Baroque Guard House is the ancient iconic building after which the square was named. Built in 1730, the Hauptwache has been through a lot of changes- once a home to the city's militia to a prison to a police station, to now, a café. It is also one of the main shopping areas of Frankfurt, complete with a large underground mall and serves as a point from where the city's main shopping and commercial streets radiate. If serving as a café and city’s main shopping center, the Hauptwache is also the city's main train station, built back in 1888 and one of the largest and important stations in Europe.
- Zoo Frankfurt: Founded in 1858, Zoo Frankfurt shelters more than 4,500 animals, of at least 450 different species, covering over 32 acres near the city's old Friedberger Tor. Ranked as Germany's second oldest zoo, Zoo Frankfurt is noted for its excellent animal houses, unique Grzimek House, displaying Madagascar's diverse fauna. One of the most interesting part of the zoo the Exotarium, which is full of animals from different climatic regions, including marine life, reptiles, and crocodiles. The Nocturnal Animals House and the Bird Hall is sure to amaze everyone with its diversity and hence, makes up for a perfect family vacation spot. The Zoo Frankfurt offers a variety of events and programs, including family festivals, exhibits, and themed tours.
- The Old Opera House: Constructed in 1880, right in the center of Frankfurt's Opera Square, the Old Opera House reflects the style of the Italian High Renaissance. Even after being completely destroyed during World War II, it was rebuilt and reopened in 1981 as one of the city's most important concert venues. The city's new opera house, Oper Frankfurt, and the drama theater, Schauspiel Frankfurt, share a contemporary, state-of-the-art venue known as Opern-und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, which is about half a mile away on Willy-Brandt-Platz, near the river.