Zeil, Hauptwache and Eschenheimer Tor

Just a few blocks to the north of the historical Römerberg square is Hauptwache, a famous busy plaza where you can find St Katharina Church and the historic Hauptwache Building. It is at Hauptwache Frankfurt's most famous street Zeil begins. At Zeil, you can find large department stores, two shopping gallerias and many large brand stores. Unfortunately most of its grand buildings were lost during the 1944 bombings and most new buildings at Zeil were built in a dull modern post-war style, except for the exciting My Zeil shopping galleria. Zeil goes from the two plazas Hauptwache to Konstablerwache. Eschenheimer Tor is the square at the historic Eschenheimer Turm. On the bottom of this page you can also find photos from the north river bank of Main.

Hauptwache:

Hauptwache is a baroque building from 1730 that gave name to the square. It the headquarters of the city's Stadtwehr Militia when Frankfurt was an independent city state.
It has hosted a prison and a police station. Now it hosts a popular café.

Hauptwache has a sunken area called "the hole" (to the right), leading to the underground transportation and shops. The tall skyscraper is Commerzbank, Germany's tallest.
To the left is Katharinenkirche and in the middle Hauptwache building. Where I stand is the starting point of Zeil.

Katharinenkirche, St Catherine's Church is a 54 m tall baroque church situated at Hauptwache. It is the city's largest Lutheran church. It was built in 1681, but had to be
rebuilt after the 1944 bombings by the allied ones.

Inside Katharinenkirche.

St Catherine's Church seen from Goethestrasse. As a Swedish citizen I noted the SEB bank, that has its own café!

Zeil:

Old meets new, or not? Palais Thurn und Taxis is a rebuilt building, currently under construction (2010), so it is actually newer than Zeil Hochhaus! It was originally
built in 1739, but was rebuilt as part of the PalaisQuartier complex. It has a long history and used to be the imperial headquarters among others.

Zeilgallerie to the left and My Zeil, 2 shopping gallerias at the west starting point of Zeil.

My Zeil from 2009 is designed in a deconstructivist style, just as the adjancted Zeil skyscrapers, also part of the PalaisQuartier complex. The architect is Massimiliano
Fuksas in Rome.

Zeil Hochhaus and Jumeirah Frankfurt Hotel are 2 brand new deconstrutivist skyscrapers, among the most striking ones in Frankfurt. The tallest tower is 136m tall and have 33 floors. It is connected with My Zeil shopping galleria, built in the same style. They are all part of the same complex, PalaisQuartier.

The super cool deconstrutivist interior of MyZeil shopping galleria, that opened in 2009.

Rainwater from the roofs are cleaned and returned to the water cycle of the house.

The Zeil highrises seen through the almost organic shape that leads to the facade of the building.

MyZeil.

From the glass window of MyZeil you can look down on Zeil.

The Zeil Gallerie is modern, but pretty dark and dated compared to the new MyZeil galleria next door.

Crowds of people outside MyZeil. Zeil is the most busy street in Frankfurt.

Galeria Kaufhof is a large department store at Hauptwache/Zeil.

The exclusive food department of Galeria Kaufhof.

Karstadt is another huge department store, but has an ugly exterior.

Eschenheimer Tor:

Eschenheimer Turm. The 47 m high tower was the gate to the city of Frankfurt and is the best preserved old builting, dating from the 15th century. And of course there is an open-air pub on the foot of the tower. The architect, Madern Garthener, also drew the Kaiserdom Cathedral.

Eschenheimer Turm is nowadays surrounded by Post-War New Town architecture and traffic.

Detektiv Tudor.

Metropolis building.

Zeil Hochaus seen behind older buildings.

Zeil Hochhaus, Galeria Kaufhof and Katharinenkirche.

The north river bank of Main:

One of the few classicist buildings in Frankfurt, a library (?) that unfortunately has an ugly commie block style highrise behind it. It is situated at the river bank of Main.

Cherry trees next to Main.

A sundial at the River Bank at Main.