.: Mainzigartig :.

For all the connections that we have to Wiesbaden, H and I have not really had the chance to explore Mainz, just across the Rhine, together. We tried for a windshield tour (Spitzentour) of the Market Place and sites over the weekend but we were pressed for time, first distracted by the promise of a flea market.

That turned out to be a time-consuming disappointment—an “East-Enders” Flohmarkt as my mother calls such sub-par traps because of the strange preponderance of the British melodrama for sale.

Nonetheless, we made it into the old city with a little time left to marvel at the main square, which hosted Johann Gutenberg’s first workshop and publishing house (although I think this is always a problematic claim to lay, like a lot of places all over advertising, truthfully, that Schiller/Luther/Goethe slept here) and dominated by the spires of the Cathedral of Mainz (Dom zu Mainz).
This thousand year old cathedral was the seat of one of the first Holy Sees created north of the Alps, at the nexus of several ancient trade-routes, and modelled after the original Basilica of Saint Peter’s in the Vatican.
Since the Middle Ages, the cathedral was granted the right to crown the kings and emperors of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, which could not always take place in this venue, because the place had extraordinary bad luck with fires and other disasters that put it out of commission.

It was rebuilt, however, each time with more protections, stone and then steel as opposed to wood, and is probably now nearly indestructible. We had the chance to enjoy a nice brunch with an excellent view of the square and more resolve to visit it properly very soon and discover the rest of this gorgeous and storied city.