11 Best Sights in Frankfurt, Germany

Germany's first museum of cinematography, set in a historic villa on "museum row," offers visitors a glimpse at the history of film, with artifacts that include "magic lanterns" from the 1880s, costume drawings from Hollywood and German films, and multiple screens playing film clips. Interactive exhibits show how films are photographed, given sound, and edited, and let visitors play with lighting and animation. A theater in the basement screens every imaginable type of film, from historical to avant-garde to Star Wars.

Bad Homburg's greatest attraction has long been the Kurpark, a 116 acre park in the heart of the Old Town, with more than 30 mineral springs and fountains, golf, tennis courts, restaurants, and playgrounds. Romans first used the springs, which were rediscovered and made famous in the 19th century. In addition to the popular (and highly salty) Elisabethenbrunnen spring, look for a Thai temple and a Russian chapel, mementos left by royal guests—King Chulalongkorn of Siam and Czar Nicholas II.

The important collection of fossils, animals, plants, and geological exhibits here is upstaged by the permanent dinosaur exhibit: it's the most extensive of its kind in all of Germany. The diplodocus dinosaur, imported from New York, is the only complete specimen of its kind in Europe. Many of the exhibits of prehistoric animals, including a series of dioramas, have been designed with children in mind, and there's a new section on biodiversity.

This open-air museum, about an hour's walk through the woods along a well-marked path from the Römerkastell-Saalburg, is an open-air museum at Hessenpark, near Neu-Anspach. The museum presents a clear picture of the world in which 18th- and 19th-century Hessians lived, using 135 acres of rebuilt villages with houses, schools, and farms typical of the time. There's also an open-air theater with performances about Hessian life. The park, 15 km (9 miles) outside Bad Homburg in the direction of Usingen, is reached easily by public transportation from Frankfurt.

This fascinating museum in a building in Römer Square that dates from the 1300s doubled in size with the addition of an adjoining wing in 2015. The city's oldest museum explores two millennia of Frankfurt history through a collection of some 630,000 objects, including what the city of the future might look like. Standout exhibits include scale models of historic Frankfurt at various periods, with every street, house, and church, plus photos of the devastation of World War II. The new wing blends in with the surrounding historic architecture with its gabled roof and carved sandstone sides, and offers both a café and city views from the top floor.

This modern stand-alone museum opened in 2018, replacing the Kindermuseum (Children's Museum) that was once part of the Historisches Museum. Interactive historical and cultural exhibits invite exploration (and it's free for children under 18).

This is the place for visiting the past and the future of communication technology, in an airy, modern glass building. Exhibitions on historic methods include mail coaches, a vast collection of stamps from many countries and eras, and ancient dial telephones, with their clunky switching equipment.

The splendid cluster of tropical and semitropical greenhouses here contains cacti, orchids, palms, and other plants. The surrounding park, which can be surveyed from a miniature train, has many recreational facilities, including a small lake where you can rent rowboats, a play area for children, and a wading pool. The Palmengarten offers free tours on a variety of topics on Sundays. In summer there's also an extensive concert program that takes place in an outdoor pavilion. In addition to exhibition galleries, two restaurants offer quick bites or full meals.

The remains of a Roman fortress built in AD 120, the Römerkastell-Saalburg could accommodate a cohort (500 men) and was part of the fortifications along the Limes Wall, which ran from the Danube to the Rhine and was meant to protect the Roman Empire from barbarian invasion. It was restored in the early 1900s under the direction of the Kaiser. The site, which includes a museum of Roman artifacts, is 6½ km (4 miles) north of Bad Homburg on Route 456 in the direction of Usingen; there's a direct bus from Bad Homburg. There's also a small café.

This charming little museum honors the Frankfurt physician who created the sardonic children's classic Struwwelpeter, or Slovenly Peter. Heinrich Hoffmann wrote the poems and drew the rather amateurish pictures in 1844, to warn children of the dire consequences of being naughty. The book has seen several English translations, including one by Mark Twain, which can be purchased at the museum. The kid-friendly museum has a puppet theater and game room, and is popular for birthday parties. After decades in a historic mansion, it reopened in a new location nearby in 2019.

Founded in 1858, this is one of the most important and attractive zoos in Europe. Its remarkable collection includes some 4,500 animals of 500 different species, an exotarium (an aquarium plus reptiles), a large ape house, and an aviary, one of the largest in Europe. Nocturnal creatures move about in a special section.