Explore Mainz

Mainz Cathedral was begun around 975 under Archbishop Willigis and largely completed by 1036 after a fire on its 1009 dedication day. Built mainly in Romanesque style with later Gothic chapels, the red sandstone cathedral is dedicated to St Martin and ranks among the three Kaiserdome of the Holy Roman Empire.

St. Christoph's Church stands beside Mainz Cathedral as a preserved ruin. Built in Gothic style in the 13th and 14th centuries, it was the church where printer Johannes Gutenberg was baptised. Allied bombing destroyed the roof and interior in 1942, leaving only the outer walls and tower, now maintained as a war memorial with a small chapel inside.

St. Stephan's Church stands on Mainz's highest hill, founded by Archbishop Willigis around 990; the present Gothic hall church was built between about 1267 and 1340. Its choir holds nine stained-glass windows made by Marc Chagall between 1978 and 1985 in shades of blue.

Mainz Citadel grew out of the earlier Schweickhardtsburg fortress and took its present quadrangular form around 1655 under Prince-Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn, with a commander's building added in 1696. The grounds, now owned by the city, contain the Roman-era Drususstein monument and remains of the medieval St Jacob's Abbey.

The Roman Theatre of Mainz was the largest Roman theatre north of the Alps, with a diameter of about 116 metres and seating for roughly 10,000 spectators. Built in the Roman city of Mogontiacum, its remains went unrecognised after an 1884 railway find until identified in 1914; the ruins now lie exposed beside the city's Römisches Theater station.