21/09/25 A Surfeit of Churches.

Mainz had gnomes to tell you when to cross the road, putting tourists at risk of becoming traffic fatalities as they stopped mid street to take photos. I am a responsible tourist and used a zoom lens from the footpath, thank you very much.

Mainz, like many German cities, was rebuilt in grand concrete style following bombing in WWII. Walking the streets was a little like a treasure hunt, finding pretty painted survivor buildings when you least expected it.  The old Mainz buildings tended to intricate painted facades, often in pastel shades of pink, yellow, and white.

We started the day with a visit to the Roman Temple discovered in 1999 during excavations for construction of a shopping centre in Mainz.  Sure enough, we got to it by going into a shop front and down a set of stairs below the shopping centre.

After that we went on a church crawl across Mainz, picking out the interesting churches and in the process walking back and forth through downtown Mainz rather more often than we planned.

First up was the Dom, Mainz' Cathedral. The Dom had lots of dark statues, stone, and impossibly high perches for organists.  Up near the roof, beautiful paintings lined the sides of the central aisle.

Next came the ruins of St Christoph, destroyed during WWII and kept as a reminder of the destruction of war.  The ruins butted right up against the present day St Christoph and half of them were out of bounds due to ongoing construction/rehabilitation work.

As the day got progressively colder the churches, beautifully heated, out of the rain and with seating, became increasingly nice to visit.  The Karmeliterkirche was next, much quieter and more modest than the Dom, with less of the imposing scary-faced statues.

It had a pretty painted ceiling though,

and an interesting organ.

Painted ceilings reached a whole new Baroque level in the church of St Peter, along with an imposing level of gilt.

There was one final church to isit: across town lay St Stephan.  This was, so Google informed me, the most visited church in Mainz due primarily to the blue stained glass winows created by the artist Marc Chagell.

By then it was late in the afternoon.  We wandered home via the fantastical Fastnachtsbrunnen fountain:

and past the imposing Nail Column which by the time we passed it for the last time, was shrouded in scaffolding and obviously undergoing some much needed TLC.

There was so much more to see: Mainz abounded in statues and fountains and painted buildings, but there was only so much a pair of footsore tourists could see on a cold and cloudy day.  We had pasta and pizza for dinner and Roger celebrated the cheapness of European beer to end the day.

I took a photo of a fat happy knight.  When I looked at the photo later, I realised he'd just chopped off someone's head.  I don't like him any more.

Door of the day: entering St Stephan from the cloister.