Frankfurt - Römerberg

Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main) is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. The city is the heart of the larger Rhine-Main metropolitan region, which has a population of more than 5.8 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region.

Alemanni and Franks lived there, and by 794, Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd was first mentioned. It was one of the two capitals of Charlemagne's grandson Louis the German. Louis founded the collegiate church, rededicated in 1239 to Bartholomew the Apostle and now Frankfurt Cathedral.

Frankfurt was one of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire. From 855, the German kings were elected and crowned in Aachen. From 1562, the kings and emperors were crowned and elected in Frankfurt. This tradition ended in 1792.

The Frankfurter Messe ('Frankfurt Trade Fair') was first mentioned in 1150. Book trade fairs began in 1478. In 1372, Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt (Imperial Free City), directly subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and was the Free City of Frankfurt, for nearly five centuries. It lost its sovereignty upon the collapse of the empire in 1806, regained it in 1815 and then lost it again in 1866, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia.

Römerberg is a large public space located in front of the Römer building complex, the seat of the city administration since the 15th century. The site of numerous imperial coronations, trade fairs, and Christmas markets is the historic heart of the medieval Altstadt (old town). The very most of the buildings were destroyed by the Allied bombing during WWII. They got reconstructed in the 1950s and 1960s. The Alte Nikolaikirche is part of the ensemble. The building, founded in the middle of the 12th century as a court chapel, dates in its present appearance from the 15th century.