Darmstadt Travel Guide

The Castle, once of considerable dimensions, is located 1000 metres from the Darmstadt boundary in the community of Muehltal. The noble family of Frankenstein built their stronghold on this jutting rock, affording excellent defences. The Castle is first mentioned in the records in the year 948. Initial construction of the Castle ruins remaining today began in the 13th century. The 14th and 15th centuries saw expansion, followed by construction of reinforcements in the 16th.

There is speculation that Mary Shelley was inspired to write her famous novel Frankenstein by a visit in 1816 to this castle with its many myths and legends.

The seats of the Castle cafe offer a far-reaching view over the Rhine-Main plain to the cities of Worms, Oppenheim, Mainz and Frankfurt. The Castle is directly accessible by car by a winding road that branches off from the B 426. Public transport also brings tourists to the Frankenstein stop at the foot of the mountain, from where a walk of about half an hour leads to the Castle.

Darmstadt is famous for its Jugendstil (art nouveau) buildings. Many of the buildings survived the massive destruction of Darmstadt in 1944. Visit the Künstlerkolonie Mathildenhöhe, to see the most interesting ones.

The Museum is housed in the Ernst-Ludwig-Haus, the former atelier building of the Darmstadt Artists´ Colony. It provides a summary of the works of the artist members of Darmstadt´s Mathildenhöhe artists´ colony from 1899 to the beginning of the First World War. The focus is on items of everyday use, although other types of applied art are also represented. The collection pays tribute to the broad spectrum of Jugendstil forms.

Darmstadt´s Residential Palace is located at the centre of modern downtown Darmstadt, at the upper end of the Rheinstraße. This has not always been the case. Earlier, in the times of Georg I, the Palace secured Darmstadt´s west flank. The Palace moat was used as a defence against intruders. The New Gate to the southwest was used mainly by the peasants from the surrounding countryside.

The Residential Palace combines structures from 6 centuries. The last structural changes were made under Landgrave Ernst Ludwig in the 18th century. His Master Construction Engineer Rémy de la Fosse planned a Baroque Palace. As it turned out, only two wings of the planned structure were completed, along the Rheinstraße and towards the Market Square. In 1944, the Palace burned down to the outer walls. Reconstruction efforts succeeded in restoring the facade structures to nearly pre-war status.

The Palace Museum is located in the older part of the Palace. Its 22 rooms provide a good overview of 250 years of courtly life in a minor Residence as well as the history of the region, at first under the Landgraves and later as the Grand Duchy of Hessen. The museum is open Monday to Thursday from 10am - 1pm and 2pm - 5pm, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 1pm, tel. +49 6151/24035. Guided tours only.

The Waldspirale (Forest Spiral), a residential complex by Austrian Friedensreich Hundertwasser, was built in 1998 – 2000. An almost surreal building, it is internationally famous for its almost absolute rejection of rectangular forms, down to every window having a different shape, the style being a trademark of Hundertwasser's work. Natural features of the landscape are expressed in this building: the layers of sedimental rock found underneath the site are reflected on the facade in bands of ceramic tiles and coloured stucco. The roof of the building is formed by a garden of beech, maple, and lime trees.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Messel Pit Fossil Site is located a few kilometers outside Darmstadt. UNESCO states that Messel Pit is the richest site in the world for understanding the living environment of the Eocene, between 57 million and 36 million years ago. In particular, it provides unique information about the early stages of the evolution of mammals and includes exceptionally well-preserved mammal fossils, ranging from fully articulated skeletons to the contents of stomachs of animals of this period. Messel has a small railway station on the Darmstadt – Aschaffenburg line. From the station it is about a 20-minute walk (there is no bus) out of town to the south. The Site is open from the start of April to the end of October.

Kranichstein Hunting Lodge, built by Jakob Kesselhut, is among the rare Renaissance hunting lodges still existant in Germany. Landgrave Georg I had it constructed at the end of the 16th century to house his many hunting parties. Later, the Lodge was used as a summer residence. The three-winged Renaissance chateau was one of the first horseshoe-shaped buildings in all of Germany. It was renovated and restored as a monument from 1988 to 1996.

The building is the center of an extensive park featuring a number of shooting stands and the smaller lodges Dianaburg and Alexanderburg. Today, the Hunting Lodge houses a hunting museum with a large collection of hunting weapons and equipment, furnishings from the hunting period and paintings depicting the hunt. In the summertime, concerts take place against the backdrop of the Renaissance chateau and offer a wonderful open-air experience.