Frankfurt's museum riverbank, the Brothers Grimm and the documenta in Kassel.
2 museumsHesse lies in the heart of Germany. Frankfurt is a city of banks and books, and Kassel hosts the documenta, one of the world's biggest art exhibitions, every five years.
Look inside, then buy your ticket on the museum’s own website.
Closest first, from where you are now. Times are on foot; tap a route for directions.
In Frankfurt, more than thirty museums line both banks of the river Main. The Städel shows 700 years of European art, from Botticelli and Vermeer to Picasso, and Goethe's family home stands in the old centre. North of Frankfurt, the Messel Pit is a UNESCO site full of 47-million-year-old fossils, many of them shown at the Senckenberg museum. In Kassel, the Grimmwelt tells the story of the Brothers Grimm, and the hillside park of Wilhelmshöhe, with its giant Hercules statue and water cascades, is on the UNESCO list too. Darmstadt has the Art Nouveau artists' colony of the Mathildenhöhe. Hessian food is simple and proud: Grüne Soße, a cold green sauce of seven herbs, apple wine poured from a grey stone jug called a Bembel, and Frankfurter Kranz, a ring cake with butter cream. In late August the Museum Embankment Festival fills the river banks, the Frankfurt Book Fair takes over the city in October, and the Christmas market fills the Römerberg square in December.
The big moments, and where to see them today.
700 years of European art, from Botticelli and Vermeer to Picasso.
The writer's family home, with the room where he wrote his first books.
A playful museum about the Brothers Grimm, their fairy tales and their dictionary.
Dinosaurs and the famous fossils from the Messel Pit.
Almost every museum is easy to reach by public transport.
Lines and timetables change. Check the operator’s website before you travel.