Landeshauptstadt Mainz Direkt zum Inhalt
Landeshauptstadt Mainz Direkt zum Inhalt
Known throughout the world, Mainz’s Gutenberg Museum is famous as a museum specializing in the field of print and the art of fine printing. Live demonstrations are presented several times a day for visitors to the Gutenberg, so that all can see for themselves just how Gutenberg himself once worked in his shop.
In the Museum’s Printing Workshop area, would-be „printer’s devils“ (youngsters apprenticed to printers, as was Benjamin Franklin) and adult Gutenberg fans and emulators can sit down at the composition box, fill their frames with cold type, create their own messages, and using foot-power, can print a one-of-a-kind souvenir of their visit to the birthplace printing.
The Landesmuseum of Rheinland-Pfalz in Mainz, on the other hand, is not a „hands-on“ establishment: its halls and highly atmospheric Steinsaal are dominated by proud Roman monuments. As a scientific research center, the Roman-Germanic Central Museum has long since made a name for itself.
And the same holds true for Mainz’s Museum für Antike Schiffahrt – --the Museum of Ancient Water Transportation. Here visitors can look at the restauration work accomplished on the sensational Roma-era discoveries of ancient vessals directly at the site where they were discovered, freed from the confines of almost two millennia of oygen-free mud which preserved these treaures.
Mainz's museums are not only devoted to museums featuring scientific sensations.
During 2000 –2001 the foundations of one Roman temple was discovered right in the middle of modern-day Mainz’s inner central city commercial and shopping district!
By carefullying preserving the Temple of Isis and the Magna Mater Temple, (the two most important pre-Christian Imperial faiths brought to the Rhine,) Mainz enhanced its position as destination for antiquity fans. A far more massive Roman structure is visible to railroad passengers approaching town from the south: it’s the Drusus Theater ruins, the remains of the largest Roman edifice noth of the Alps which functioned for at least two centuries, from about 100 A.D. on until 300 A.D. with room for audiences of 10,000 with activity-in-the aisles audience-member participation These show-time events were literarly acts of state!
Theater-goers attuned to more contemporary works than those of the classical Roman authors should make every effort to attend a production at the Staatstheater Mainz where opera, ballet, dance, theater, msuicals and other large stage works are presented.
The house was entirely modernized in 1998 – 2001 with state-of-the-art technical and production equipment , and the installation of comfortable seating, creation of spacious public areas, a fine restaurant and myriad amenities.
Mainz also has relished its long French tradition. In fact, following the Revoultion Mainz or Mayence was actually a Départment of France! This was indeed theculmination of centuries of political, economic and cultural interdependencies. Prior to its incorporation into La République in 1798 which lasted 16 years until Napoleon’s fall from power in 1814, Mainz was also the first republic founded in Germany. Many similarities exist between Mainz’s quiet, broad tree-lined residential streets down and those found in cities throughout France. A keen sense of more westerly European political thought, more liberal and international in its collective outlook may be traced back to Roman times or this French tradition: Mainz was again in 1848 one of the first German cities to seek more popular, democratic form of government as those Revolutions broke out.
Mainz’s French Partner City is Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, which is famed for its grand wines just as Mainz is known for being Germany’s wine capital. Other „Meenzer“ wine honors include its being the seat of the nation‘s largest appellation, Rheinhessen, home of the German Wine Institute, and prime shipping port for all German wines to the rest of the world. This last is a distinction held since Roman times. As most everybody who loves wines knows, Bacchus‘ address boasts a Mainz ZIP/Postal code!
The Dijon-Mainz inter-city relationship is now 40 years old, one of the oldest such partnerships in Germany. The activities of the Maison de France, Cine Mayence and the Haus Burgund vastly enrich Mainz’s cultural life and contribute heavily towards filling the city’s calendar of events.
Work in Progress!
Although we are doing our best to provide complete information in several languages, for the moment we beg your indulgence that we can only offer the most important highlights in the English language at this time.