Discover Mainz

For a stay in Mainz, you can focus on different things: the cathedral’s long history, Gutenberg and church art, or walks, wine and regional cuisine. If you’re looking for a hotel, it helps to first decide which interests you want to shape your visit. The following places and activities give you concrete starting points for planning.

Cathedral, church art and history

St. Martin’s Cathedral, also known as Mainz Cathedral, is a landmark of Mainz with a history spanning 1,000 years. Today, the Bishop’s Cathedral and Diocesan Museum is housed in the adjoining collegiate buildings of the Mainz Cathedral cloister. Its restored late Gothic exhibition rooms display religious art treasures from the late Middle Ages and modern era. One of the cathedral’s major attractions is a well-preserved portrait gallery featuring funerary monuments dating from the 11th to the 20th century. Its completeness and state of preservation make it one of the cathedral’s most significant attractions.

St. Stephen’s is the city’s oldest Gothic hall church and was built in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Its most striking features are the nine luminous blue stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall: they depict biblical themes and were created between 1978 and 1985 as a symbol of reconciliation between Judaism and Christianity. Among the city’s churches, this one offers both a connection to the building’s great age and a more recent artistic reference.

Another glimpse into the past awaits at the Mainz Citadel. The Drusus Stone is worth seeing there; its surviving core dates back to a memorial erected by the Romans for the general Drusus. The citadel combines expansive green spaces and mature trees with walking paths and views of Mainz. Individual visitors can explore the grounds using QR codes on historical information panels and information about the various buildings.

Getting around on foot and following in Gutenberg’s footsteps

Much of Mainz city centre is pedestrianised. This makes shops easy and quick to reach on foot; the city centre and the banks of the Rhine are also inviting places to walk. For a themed stroll, the Gutenberg Trail leads from the Gutenberg Museum to Algesheimer Hof, Gutenberg’s last residence. The museum itself is dedicated to Johannes Gutenberg, his inventions and their impact up to the present day.

Public guided tours of the Old Town explore the city’s 2,000-year history and are offered regularly with trained guides. Groups can arrange private tours with their choice of dates and topics. This gives you several options: an independent walk, a route with historical links to Gutenberg, or a guided city walk. If you’re planning a tour or a group visit, check the latest dates and booking details in advance.

Wine and Mainz food culture

Mainz is in Rheinhessen, Germany’s largest wine-growing region. Wine is also part of several Mainz experiences: a guided walk through the vineyards leads to an open-air wine tasting. The vineyard experience includes a tasting of five wines and a Mainz vintners’ snack of Weck and Worscht.

Another opportunity to try wine spritzers and a typical food pairing is the Mainz Market Breakfast. It takes place on Saturdays from March to November and combines a glass of Mainz wine spritzer from the Mainz vintners’ stand with a bread roll and Fleischwurst sausage. The traditional name for this is “Weck, Worscht und Woi”. If you’d like to plan your visit around the Market Breakfast, check the latest dates in advance.

Discover more destinations: Frankenthal, Worms, Speyer, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, Zweibrücken

Return to the main travel overview: Rhineland-Palatinate.