Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Frankfurt am Main
The Kleinmarkthalle in Frankfurt is the city's best-known indoor food market, a lively hall in the old town where regional produce, sausages, cheese, spices and international delicacies are sold side by side. If you want a taste of Frankfu…
Churches & monasteries
Eltville am Rhein
Eberbach Abbey (Kloster Eberbach), near Eltville am Rhein in Hesse's Rheingau wine region, is one of the best-preserved medieval monasteries in Europe. Cistercian monks founded it in 1136, built a severe Romanesque church and vast Gothic h…
Churches & monasteries
Lorsch
Lorsch Abbey (Kloster Lorsch) in southern Hesse is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most important relics of the Carolingian era in Germany. The once-powerful imperial abbey survives mainly through its famous Königshalle, a gate…
Landmarks
Wiesbaden
The Kurhaus Wiesbaden is the grand spa house of Wiesbaden, the capital of Hesse, about 40 km west of Frankfurt. Opened in 1907 by Emperor Wilhelm II, the neoclassical building with its columned portico and the Latin inscription "Aquis Matt…
Churches & monasteries
Limburg an der Lahn
Limburg Cathedral (Limburger Dom) in Limburg an der Lahn, Hesse, is one of Germany's most photogenic churches: seven towers and a white-and-red painted facade rise from a limestone cliff above the Lahn River. Consecrated in 1235, the Cathe…
Castles
Kassel
Löwenburg Castle in Kassel looks like a crumbling medieval fortress, but it is actually a romantic fantasy built at the end of the 18th century. Set in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2013, this artificial ruin wa…
Castles
Marburg
Marburg Castle (Landgrafenschloss) crowns the hill above the medieval old town of Marburg in Hesse, about an hour north of Frankfurt by train. Begun in the 11th century, it became the first seat of the Landgraves of Hesse and hosted the 15…
Landmarks
Darmstadt
Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, about 30 km south of Frankfurt, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Europe's key landmarks of Art Nouveau (called Jugendstil in German) and early modernism. From 1899, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse bro…
Landmarks
Frankfurt am Main
The Messeturm (Trade Fair Tower) in Frankfurt is one of the city's most recognizable skyscrapers: a red granite tower topped by a pyramid, standing beside the exhibition grounds on Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage. At about 257 meters (843 feet) it…
Museums
Frankfurt am Main
The Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) in Frankfurt is one of Germany's most important museums of contemporary art. Its main building in the old town, Hans Hollein's wedge-shaped "slice of cake", is a landmark in itself. One thing to know befo…
National parks
Vöhl
Kellerwald-Edersee National Park in northern Hesse protects one of the last large old-growth beech forests in Central Europe, rising straight from the shores of the Edersee reservoir. Its steep slopes, gnarled oaks and quiet trails earned…
Zoos
Kronberg im Taunus
The Opel-Zoo in Kronberg im Taunus, about 20 km northwest of Frankfurt, is a wooded hillside zoo best known as the only place in the state of Hesse where you can see elephants. Around 1,700 animals of some 200 species live on its 27 hectar…
Historic sites & memorials
Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
The Saalburg Roman Fort near Bad Homburg, just north of Frankfurt, is the only Roman fort on the Limes frontier that has been almost completely rebuilt. Walls, gates, and buildings of a 2nd-century army camp stand again on the forested Tau…
Other
Breitscheid
The Herbstlabyrinth (Autumn Labyrinth) near Breitscheid is the show cave of the largest cave system in the German state of Hesse. Hidden in the Westerwald hills, it leads you down a staircase into the Knöpfchenhalle, a tall chamber packed…
Museums
Frankfurt am Main
The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is one of Europe's best-known venues for modern and contemporary art. Its original building between the cathedral and the Römerberg is being renovated for energy efficiency, so for now the Schirn presents it…
Palaces
Wiesbaden
Biebrich Palace (Schloss Biebrich) in Wiesbaden is one of the finest baroque palaces on the Rhine. Its pink-and-white facade and domed central rotunda face the river directly, while behind it stretches a large landscaped park with ponds, o…
Castles
Braunfels
Braunfels Castle (Schloss Braunfels) in central Hesse is a neo-Gothic palace perched on a basalt cone above the small half-timbered town of Braunfels. It has belonged to the same noble family for almost 800 years, and part of it is still l…
Palaces
Eichenzell
A few kilometres south of Fulda, a long, pale Baroque façade is reflected in a pond, crowned by a tower with a curved cupola. Fasanerie Palace was the summer residence of the prince-abbots of Fulda and later of the Landgraves of Hesse. Its…
Palaces
Weilburg
At Weilburg the river Lahn loops almost all the way round a rocky spur, and Weilburg Palace sits right on top of it. The complex stretches 400 m along the eastern edge of the hill and covers nearly half of the old town. At its heart is a 1…
Palaces
Kassel
Wilhelmshöhe Palace in Kassel is the grand Neoclassical centerpiece of the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2013. Behind its columned facade hangs one of Germany's finest Old Masters collections, with paintings by…
Viewpoints
Willingen (Upland)
665 metres of steel grating, a railing on each side and up to 100 metres of air below you: the Skywalk Willingen in the Upland, the Hessian part of the Sauerland hills, is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in Germany. It spans from…
Zoos
Hofgeismar
In the middle of the Reinhardswald forest, below Sababurg castle on its basalt knoll, lies a park that the Landgraves of Hesse had enclosed with a long stone wall back in the 16th century. Sababurg Wildlife Park was laid out as a game park…
Mountains & peaks
Gersfeld (Rhön)
The Wasserkuppe in the Rhön Mountains is the highest peak in Hesse at 950 meters and is known worldwide as the "cradle of gliding." Its broad, open summit plateau near Gersfeld, about 20 km east of Fulda, draws hikers, glider and paraglide…