Frankfurt nowadays has about 660,000 inhabitants. This business center is also well worth visiting in its own right; it has its own unique mixture of historic buildings and skyscrapers in the Manhattan style. There is an unimaginable wealth of traditional and cultural exhibits spread around more than 40 museums and more than 20 theatres.
A tour of historic Frankfurt ... Am Romerberg
The oldest historic traces of settlement in Frankfurt are to be found near here, on the hill where the cathedral stands - safely above flood level on the banks of the Main. The Frankfurt "Messen", or trade fairs, once used to be held here on the Romerberg. Merchants used to travel to Frankfurt to the Fair in Frankfurt as long ago as the 11th century, and there has also been a Spring Fair ever since 1330.
The Emperor Friedrich II had granted the city a special Trade Fair privilege in 1240, which placed the traders, and their valuable goods, under his protection. At the times when the Fair was being held, the hostels and vaulted cellars with their shops on the ground floor were in short supply all around the Romerberg. In addition to the coarse local cloth they also sold fine lace from France and spices from overseas.
Although the town square on the Romerberg has long since lost its leading position as the trade fair center to more modern facilities, with gigantic exhibition halls, it still draws millions of visitors during Advent with its traditional Christmas Market. A magnificent Christmas tree, 26 to 30 meters tall, stands out against the romantic background formed by the facades of the Romer or, depending where you are looking from, by the eastern side, with its charming half-timbered gables.
Only insiders know that this harmonious-looking row of houses was not built until 1983. Just like their extension, the "Schwarzer Stern" ("Black Star"), these are reconstructions of 15th and 16th century houses, which stood here until 1944. Along the west side, the city had the Romer rebuilt after its destruction in 1944 as correctly and authentically as possible. The side facing the square consists of five medieval facades, behind which is the town hall, itself a symbol of the historic Frankfurt. The name "Romer" comes from the central, and tallest, of the three step-gable structures in which Italian visitors to the trade fair used to be housed. After being rebuilt in the late Gothic style, it served from 1405 onwards together with the building behind it, the "Goldener Schwan", as the town hall.
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