Mainz

On Saturday, last weekend we drove to Mainz, the capital of Rhineland-Pfalz. It lies along the Rhine river and is a very old city. As early as 12 BC the Romans founded a military camp here, using it as a base for the invasion of Germania. In 746, St Boniface, a British missionary established an archbishopric here. The most famous of Mainz's citizens is certainly Johannes Gutenberg who, in the 15th century, invented movable type using metal letter stamps.

Jeff and I were in Mainz about a year and a half ago without the kids. My most vivid memory of Mainz was the markets. Although I had just landed in Germany and was quite sleep-deprived and overwhelmed the markets were as wonderful as I remembered.

Mainz has its share of beautiful churches. We stopped at Pfarrkirche St. Quintin

where Joseph got to stand next to St. Joseph.

Most famous is the Mainz Dom (cathedral).

It's hard to see here (it was hard to see in person) but this is a crypt. A woman explained to us all in German (and we think we got it fairly straight) that this isn't a special holy person but is from Jerusalem. They take it out and march it around the Dom at Easter time in a special service.

All along the sides of the Dom are amazing, huge, carved memorial tombstones like this one. They are the tombstones of archbishops of the Dom and other powerful people from the 13th to the 18th centuries.

After a tour of the Dom we just had to sample some goodies from the markets (they are in the Dom platz - just outside the Dom). Daniel, Ellen and I opted for something sweet. Joseph and Jeff got sausage and bread (sehr Deutsche!)

Next stop was the Gutenberg Museum. As I mentioned Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type and metal letter stamps in the 1430's.

Of course the Chinese really invented the first movable type printing press but timing and access is important and it was Gutenberg's invention that ended up paving the way for the Information Age. I wonder what he would think about blogs...?

In the museum we watched a demonstration of how a replica of Gutenberg's press worked and watched a short film on Gutenberg. We were pleased with how much of this we understood! (or with how much we think we understood).

The prize of the Gutenberg museum is two copies of the famous 42-line Gutenberg Bible. They are kept in a special vault and you aren't supposed to take any photos...

A statue of Gutenberg

and one of our favorite fountains..

Next we went to St Stephankirche which is famous for its nine beautiful stained glass windows created by Marc Chagall near the end of his life. The brilliant blue of the windows bathes the whole sanctuary in blue. They symbolize Jewish-Christian reconciliation.

From Mainz we drove on into the Rheingau region but I think I will post the afternoon separately!