Frankfurter Römer: Frankfurt Travel Guide (4.7★)

Three gables, one town hall

Look up at the stepped gables first. The three peaks facing the Römerberg belong to separate medieval houses: Alt-Limpurg, Zum Römer in the middle, and Löwenstein. Frankfurt’s council bought the house “Zum Römer” in 1405 and has run the city from here ever since. Over the centuries it absorbed the neighbouring houses, so the building you see is really a cluster of nine.

The sandstone-red facade has statues of emperors set into it and a balcony over the main door. That balcony is where Eintracht Frankfurt and Germany’s national football teams appear to fans packed into the square below. Most of the complex was destroyed in the 1944 air raids. What stands now is a careful postwar rebuild, and it still works as the city’s administrative heart.

Upstairs in the Kaisersaal

The reason to go inside is the Kaisersaal, the Imperial Hall. Holy Roman emperors were elected and later crowned in Frankfurt. Afterwards they held their coronation banquets in this room.

The walls hold a full sequence of 52 painted portraits of emperors, running from Charlemagne to Francis II. They were painted in the 19th century, all in one format. Walking the length of the room is a quick lesson in a thousand years of European power.

The hall is still used for official receptions, so it closes for events. Visitors usually enter from Limpurgergasse, the lane down the side of the building. Check the City of Frankfurt’s website for current access times and any entry charge before you plan around it.

Reading the Römerberg around it

The Römer only makes full sense with the square around it. Stand with your back to the town hall and you’ll see:

• Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen, the Fountain of Justice, with Justitia holding her scales. She isn’t blindfolded.
• The Ostzeile, a row of six half-timbered houses on the east side. They were reconstructed in the 1980s from old plans and photographs.
• Alte Nikolaikirche, the small red sandstone Gothic church on the south side.
• Historisches Museum Frankfurt, at the corner towards the river.

Expect wedding parties on the Römer steps, since the civil registry office is inside. From late November the square fills with the stalls of the Frankfurt Christmas Market, one of the oldest in Germany.

Beating the Römerberg crowds

This is one of Frankfurt’s best-known sights and the walking tours all converge on it, so timing matters. On weekdays the square is calmest from 7am to 8am. The light is low across the facade then, and you can photograph the gables without a tour group in the frame.

Try not to arrive after 11am on a weekend. From 11am to 11pm the square is at its busiest, with buskers, tour groups and café tables spreading across the cobbles. Weekend mornings from 7am are your best chance at a quiet look.

Some practical points:

• Respect the weddings. Step aside when a couple comes out for photos on the steps. Locals do it as a matter of course.
• Paying at the cafés around the square: say the total including your tip as you hand over payment. Rounding up or adding roughly a tenth is normal. Cards are common now, but small places can still prefer cash.
• Order apple wine like a local. Ask for Äppelwoi or Ebbelwoi, Frankfurt’s tart cider. It’s served in a ribbed glass called a Gerippte.
• Match days. When Eintracht wins something big, the balcony celebration packs the square solid. Check the news before you go.

Getting to Dom/Römer

Take the U4 or U5 to Dom/Römer. The station exits right into the old town, and the Römer is a two-minute walk.

From Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, the U4 gets you there in a few stops. On foot it’s roughly 20 minutes east along Kaiserstraße, then through the lanes past the Paulskirche. Trams also stop at Römer/Paulskirche, on the north side of the square.

Allow 20 to 30 minutes for the facade and square. Add another half hour if the Kaisersaal is open.

Where your feet go next

Several of Frankfurt’s main sights are only a few minutes’ walk away:

• Paulskirche, just north. Germany’s first freely elected parliament met here in 1848.
• Neue Altstadt, the Dom-Römer quarter reconstructed between the town hall and the cathedral and opened in 2018. Follow the Krönungsweg, the old coronation route.
• Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus, the cathedral where emperors were crowned. Its tower ends the Krönungsweg.
• Eiserner Steg, the iron footbridge over the Main, south of the square. Cross it for the Sachsenhausen apple-wine taverns and the riverbank view back to the skyline.

A good loop: Römer, Neue Altstadt and the cathedral, then down to the river and across the Eiserner Steg. It covers the Frankfurt that existed before the bank towers, in about two hours.