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Mainz
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"The capital of our dear Fatherland" was how Goethe styled
MAINZ
. However, this is a position this 2000-year-old city, situated by the confluence of the Rhine and Main, has never officially held, though its influential role throughout German history certainly gave it a far stronger claim for nomination as the postwar seat of government of the Federal Republic than Bonn. Mainz's importance developed in the mid-eighth century, thanks to the Englishman St Boniface, who raised it to the main centre of the Church north of the Alps. Later, the local archbishop came to be one of the most powerful princes in the Holy Roman Empire, holding Electoral status and having the official title of Archchancellor in addition to his ecclesiastical role as Primate of Germany. Further kudos was gained courtesy of Mainz's greatest son, the inventor
Johannes Gutenberg
, whose revolutionary developments in the art of printing made a colossal impact on European civilization. Since the Napoleonic period - which saw Mainz for a time become the French city of "Mayence" - it has never managed to recover its former status, while its strategic location inevitably made it a prime target of World War II bombers. Nonetheless, it's now Land capital of the Rhineland-Palatinate and is an agreeable mixture of old and new. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Germany,
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