Skip to main content

Frankfurt am Main - of Half-Timbered Houses and Skyscrapers

The last time I was in Frankfurt am Main was to drop off our rental car and catch a flight home. This time around, I was planning to stay in Frankfurt for a couple of days before leaving for the U.S. But as luck would have it, I had to change my itinerary and stayed a little bit longer than expected. Which was a good thing. Because Frankfurt has changed in the years since I visited and I had a lot of catching up to do.

Most of Frankfurt was destroyed during World War II. But its historical center was painstakingly reconstructed in the 1980s from original floorplans. These pretty half-timbered buildings on the Römerberg in the Alstadt (Old Town) provide a rich contrast to the city of skyscrapers. 

This building in the Alstadt has an unusual roofline. The grey-tiled roof flows into the dormer windows like a wave.

The Römer with its three-gabled façade has been the City Hall of Frankfurt since the 15th century.

The Gothic-style Frankfurter Dom or the Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew is a Roman Catholic church. It was constructed between the 13th and 15th centuries of red sandstone. Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were elected and crowned here. Gutted during World War II, it was reconstructed in the 1950s. 

Frankfurt is a predominantly Protestant city. But there are many statues of  Mary and the baby Jesus as well as the saints that hang from corners of buildings within the city.

The Euro-Skulptur by Ottmar Hörl on Willy Brandt Platz with the blue euro sign is surrounded by 12 stars symbolizing the original members of the European Union. Behind it is the Eurotower. 

 Frankfurt is an important financial hub, the seat of the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in the world. 

The Inverted Collar and Tie is the work of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen. It is made from polymer concrete, steel, glass-reinforced plastic and is found at the entrance to Westendstrasse 1, a 53-storey skyscraper designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

 Where to stay:
Holiday Inn Express - Hauptbahnhof
Elbestrasse 7
This hotel is a 10-minute walk from the main train station. Rooms are spacious and quiet. It is in a neighborhood surrounded by restaurants, ethnic grocery stores and weekly outdoor market. There´s an Ubahn stop nearby on Münchner Strasse. The Römerberg is a 20-minute walk from the hotel. The continental breakfast buffet offers a varied selection and is served in the dining room.

 Where to eat:
Nordsee Restaurant - several locations in the city including one near the Cathedral, at Skyline Plaza and the Hauptbahnhof. Nordsee serves seafood dishes and salads.

*****

Images by TravelswithCharie


Labels:
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Carlos Botong Francisco - Progress of Medicine in the Philippines

Pre-colonial period Pag-unlad ng Panggagamot sa Pilipinas (The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines) is a group of four large-scale paintings depicting healing practices in the Philippines from pre-colonial times to the modern period. Carlos Botong Francisco was commissioned in 1953 by  Dr. Agerico Sison who was then the director of Philippine General Hospital (PGH) together with   Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing of the National Museum, Dr. Florentino Herrera, Jr. and Dr. Constantino Manahan. These oil on canvas paintings measure 2.92 meters in height and 2.76 meters in width (9.71 ft x 8.92 ft) and were displayed at the main entrance hall of PGH for over five decades. Owing to its location, the artworks were in a state of "severe deterioration" at the beginning of the 21st century from exposure to heat, humidity, dirt, dust, smoke, insect stains, grime, termites and an oxidized synthetic resin used in an earlier restoration. These canvases were restored three times, the last was...
Read more

Timbulan ng Laya at Diwang Dakila

Timbulan ng Laya at Diwang Dakila, Carlos Botong Francisco, 1968, oil on canvas In 1963,  Mayor Antonio Villegas wrote a report, Building a Better Manila, where he indicated in detail his accomplishments on his first year as Mayor of Manila and his vision for the future of the city. Villegas aspired for a prosperous Manila by providing its residents access to health, family and housing services, opportunities for education and employment and improved infrastructure for water and road systems. *Notice the hands at the top of the painting. These hands symbolize the protective reach of God over the city of Manila. Central Panel On either side of the seal of Manila are the former mayors of the city. At the bottom are the city’s old seals. Seal of Manila adopted in 1965 under Mayor Antonio Villegas Timbulan ng Laya (Beacon of Freedom) at Diwang Dakila (Noble Spirit) are written on the seal. A sunburst with 15 rays cast light across the canvas. Below the sun, in red, is the Baybayin let...
Read more

Masaganang Ani by Vicente Silva Manansala

Masaganang Ani (Bountiful Harvest), oil on canvas, 1962 The International Rice Institute of the Philippines (IRRI) was founded in the Philippines in 1960 by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations with the support of the Philippines government. The goal of IRRI is “to improve livelihoods, abolish poverty, hunger and malnutrition among those who depend on rice based agri-food systems”. Their headquarters is in Los Baños, Laguna. These two Manansala large scale paintings were commissioned by IRRI in 1962 to depict Filipino life, labor and leisure activities. The paintings were hung on the walls of the dining room and cafeteria  at its headquarters. These weren’t ideal places to hang the canvasses because the smoke from the kitchen and the cleaning solutions used by the staff threatened the paintings. They are now on loan to the National Museum of the Philippines which declared these two masterpieces as National Cultural Treasures. In Masaganang Ani, Manansala chose themes celebrating th...
Read more