Discover Mainz: Cathedral, Culture and Wine

Churches, art and the history of printing

With a history spanning 1,000 years, Mainz Cathedral is a landmark of the city. It houses a well-preserved portrait gallery with funerary monuments dating from the 11th to the 20th century. Its completeness and state of preservation make it one of the cathedral’s most important attractions. The adjoining buildings of the cathedral cloister house the Episcopal Cathedral and Diocesan Museum. Its restored late Gothic exhibition rooms display religious art treasures from the late Middle Ages and the modern era.

The Gutenberg Museum explores another chapter in the city’s history: it is dedicated to Johannes Gutenberg, his inventions and their impact up to the present day. The Gutenberg Trail leads from the museum to the Algesheimer Hof, Gutenberg’s last residence. If you are interested in the history of printing, you can make these sites a central theme of your trip.

St. Stephen’s is Mainz’s oldest Gothic hall church and was built in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The church is also known for its nine luminous blue stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall. Depicting biblical motifs, the windows were created between 1978 and 1985 as a symbol of reconciliation between Judaism and Christianity. Here, you can explore architectural history and art through specific details.

City walks and views

Mainz Citadel offers extensive green spaces, mature trees and attractive walking paths with views across Mainz. Individual visitors can explore the extensive grounds using QR codes on historical information boards and learn about the various buildings. This lets you combine a walk with insights into the architecture. If you prefer to walk through the city centre, you will find a large pedestrian zone, where shops are easy to reach on foot and close by. The city centre and the Rhine riverbank are also inviting places to explore on foot.

For a guided introduction to the city’s history, public tours of the Old Town are led by qualified guides. They cover Mainz’s 2,000-year history and take place on a regular schedule. Groups can also book private tours with dates and topics of their choice. This gives travellers the option of choosing between a public walk and a tailor-made tour, depending on the size of their group.

Wine and Mainz specialities

Mainz is in Rheinhessen, Germany’s largest wine-growing region. A guided walk through the Mainz vineyards leads to an open-air wine tasting. The vineyard experience includes a tasting of five wines and a Mainz vintners’ snack platter with Weck and Worscht. It is a distinctive way to include wine and regional food culture in your stay.

Another Mainz tradition is the market breakfast, held on Saturdays from March to November. It includes a glass of Mainz wine spritzer from the Mainz vintners’ stand, a bread roll and sausage—traditionally known as “Weck, Worscht und Woi”. The mainz STORE, the Tourist Information office centrally located in the city centre right by Cathedral Square, also has a wine shop offering wines from Mainz, Rheinhessen and across Rhineland-Palatinate. The shop stocks souvenirs, books and typical Mainz specialities.

Choose the right focus for your stay

When looking for a holiday apartment, you can start by thinking about what you want your trip to focus on: the cathedral, church art and Gutenberg’s story; walks through the city centre and the Citadel; or wine and regional food. If your family is travelling together and has a range of interests, these themes offer different points of connection without requiring every day to follow the same plan. City tours are another way to explore history together, while a vineyard walk and the market breakfast add their own culinary highlights.

You can also include other places in your wider travel plans: Speyer, Frankenthal, Zweibrücken, Worms and Neustadt An Der Weinstraße.

For the broader travel overview: Rhineland-Palatinate.