Mainz, capital of the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate and a university town, a former Electoral and Archiepiscopal capital with a great past, is situated on the left bank of the Rhine opposite the mouth of the Main. It lies in the fertile Mainz Basin, the most northerly part of the Upper Rhine plain, and is the western focal point of the Rhine-Main economic region. It is Gutenberg's city, with important publishing houses, but also a major traffic junction and commercial and industrial city, with the headquarters of two broadcasting corporations, ZDF (Second Television Channel) and SWF (Southwestern Broadcasting), and it is one of the great centers of the Carnival.
The Cathedral of St Martin and St Stephen is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture. It was begun in the 10th C but most of the building was constructed between the 11th to 13th C.
Just downstream from the Theodor Heuss Bridge in Mainz is the old Electoral Palace (17th and 18th C.), with fine state apartments. It now houses the Roman-Germanic Central Museum, with collections of prehistoric and Roman antiquities and material of the early historical period, restoration workshops and laboratories.
On the banks of the Rhine in Mainz are the Town Hall (1970-73) and the Rheingoldhalle (1968). In Rheingoldstrasse are two towers which formed part of the town's fortifications, the Eisenturm (Iron Tower; c. 1240) and the Holzturm (Wooden Tower; 14th C.).
The little town of Ingelheim has the 12th C. church in Niederingelheim can be seen the remains of an imperial stronghold of Charlemagne and Ludwig (Louis) the Pious. Oberingelheim has preserved its old walls and has a Romanesque and Gothic church.
Ingelheim's most famous son was the theologian, mathematician and cosmographer Sebastian Münster (1488-1552), whose likeness appears on the German 100-mark note.
In Frei-Weinheim there is a ferry across the Rhine to Mittelheim.
Ingelheim is 15km/9mi west of Mainz, on the left bank of the Rhine.
Today, Weingut J. Neus is the most famous estate from this town.
In the Grosse Bleiche in Mainz stands the twin-towered Peterskirche (St Peter's Church; 1752-56). In the Marstall (Court Stables) is the Museum of the Middle Rhineland (antiquities, pictures) and a little way east the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum).
In Mainz's old town with its narrow streets and half-timbered houses, to the south of the Cathedral, are two fine Baroque churches, the Seminary Church and St Ignatius's (St Ignaz).
In Mainz's Gutenbergplatz (in which the 50th degree of latitude north is marked in the paving) is the theater. Opposite stands a statue of Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468), a native of Mainz, who invented the art of printing with movable type about 1440.
To the west, in Schillerplatz, are a number of handsome noble mansions and an unusual Carnival Fountain (1966).
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Mainz Cathedral
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Ingelheim, Germany
Mainz Cathedral, Mainz
Mainz
