Gelnhausen Things to Do Tips by Weissdorn

Guided Tours in Gelnhausen II

Tower and Gate Tour – Inside Gelnhausen’s Towers
Tour lasts about 2 hours, and costs 50.00 Euro per group.

Church and Monastery Tour
Tour lasts about 2 hours, and costs 50.00 Euro per group.

Literature in Gelnhausen Tour
Tour lasts about 2 hours, and costs 50.00 Euro per group.

Everyday Business in the Middle Ages in Gelnhausen Tour
Tour lasts about 2 hours, and costs 50.00 Euro per group.

Wine Making in Gelnhausen Tour
Tour lasts about 2 hours, and costs 50.00 Euro per group.

If you want to register your group for a tour, please register it with the “Fremdenverkehrsamt” (Tourist Office) early.

If you want to change or cancel your tour, you can do so up to 24 hours before the tour the tour is scheduled to start. If you have scheduled your tour for Saturday or Sunday, 12 p.m. on Friday is the deadline to change your plans.

For late cancellations or no-shows, the city will retain 50% of the tour fee as a service fee.

The guide will wait for your group up to 30 minutes past the appointment time for 2 hour tours, and 15 minutes for shorter tours, before your group will be considered a no-show. The tour guide will be available for your group at the appointed time for the tour, and will wait for the above mentioned periods, if necessary.

The maximum group size is restricted to 30 persons. For larger groups, several tour guide will have to be hired.

For tours in foreign languages (non-German), a surcharge of 10.00 Euro will be charged.

Please write to the following address to book your tour:
Fremdenverkehrsamt@Gelnhausen.de

Or write to:
Fremdenverkehrsamt Gelnhausen
Postfach 17 36
63551 Gelnhausen

Guided Tours in Gelnhausen

The City Council offers quite a number of special guided tours through the Barbarossa City. Specifically:

Regular City Tours are offered from May through October every Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The tour lasts approximately 90 minutes, and they start in front of the Rathaus (City Hall).

They also have special group tours year ‘round , by appointment for groups up to 15 people. To help your planning, please remember that St. Mary’s and the Emperor’s Palace are closed to the public on Mondays, but are still available for special group tours.

There are even special tours with living historical figures who will take you back in time on a tour through Gelnhausen. This tour is called the “Erlebnisführung”, and is held on the first Friday every month, from May through October at 8:15 p.m. It starts in front of the Rathaus (City Hall). For more information for this kind of tour, see the next page.

Tours for Groups:

Complete Tours of the City
This includes the Imperial Palatinate, the Witch’s Tower or the Former Synagoge, and lasts around 2 hours and 15 minutes. The group tour costs 45.00 Euro, plus 1.30 Euro admission fee per person for admission to the Imperial Palatinate. For groups with less than 15 persons, the admission fee is 1.80 Euro per person, and for student groups, a group admission fee of 16.00 Euro will be charged.

St. Mary’s Church Tour
Tour lasts about 50 minutes, and costs 37.00 Euro per group.

St. Mary’s Church Tour with Organ Music
Tour lasts about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and costs 62.00 Euro per group.

Imperial Palatinate Tour
Tour lasts about 1 hour, and costs 37.00 Euro per group, plus 1.30 Euro per person admission fee. For groups under 15 persons, 1.80 Euro per person. Student groups will be charged a group admission fee of 16.00 Euro

Witch’s Tour Tour
Tour lasts about 30 minutes, and costs 27.00 Euro per group.

Former Synagog Tour
Tour lasts about 30 minutes, and costs 27.00 Euro per group.

Other Contact: Fax: (0049-6051) 830 303

Phone: (0049-6051) 830 300

Fountains in Gelnhausen

In addition to the multiple private fountains in the cellars of the homes in Gelnhausen, there are numerous public fountains originating from the middle ages, such as the "Holzborn", the Stone Fountain (Steinbrunnen), the Lambertus Fountain and fountains in the courtyard of the Order of the German Knights House (Catholic Vicarage). The Wheelbarrow Fountain (Schubkärrnschercherbrunnen) near the museum is a modern-day masterpiece and is reminiscent of the wine making days of Gelnhausen, and the tedious climb the wine farmers had up to the vineyard mountains.

Tower and Gate Tour – Inside Gelnhausen’s Towers

The "Half Moon Tower" still stand in the city gardens today, a semi-circular tower that severed as a watch tower along the city walls.

Many of the medieval gates from the 13th and 14th centuries still decorate Gelnhausen today. Some of them serve today as passage ways for cars and pedestrians, or entrance roadways into the city. This is the case for both of the "Wooden Gates" (Holztore), the "Brick Gate" (Ziegeltor) and the "Shipping Gate" (Schifftor). The Haitzer Gate was used up until the 19th century as a city entrance gate, until the road was relocated to the north side of the city, and the gate tower was transformed into a house.

The City Council offers quite a number of special guided tours through the Barbarossa City, including a Tour and Gate Tour. The tour lasts about 2 hours, and costs 50.00 Euro per group.

Please write to the following address to book your tour:
Fremdenverkehrsamt@Gelnhausen.de

Or write to:
Fremdenverkehrsamt Gelnhausen
Postfach 17 36
63551 Gelnhausen

Other Contact: Fax: (0049-6051) 830 303

Phone: (0049-6051) 830 300

Witch's Tower

Gelnhausen is a town with towers and gates. The first wall surrounding the city was probably erected about the time the city was founded, back in 1170. Many of the towers and gates from back then are still standing today, and have been carefully restored in the past few years.

The Witch's Tower has the darkest history from all of the towers in the town. In the middle ages, dozens of innocent people were locked away in this tower, who were falsely accused of practicing witchcraft. They were often kept as desolate prisoners for months in this dark and damp tower. A museum display explaining the history can only let you imagine what sort of tortures these poor people had to suffer. In the upper story of the Witch's Tower is an exhibit of witch hunts that took place in Gelnhausen.

Birth Houses of Famous People

By the way, on a tour through the older part of town, you will inevitably walk by the house where the famous Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1622 – 1676) was born, who is considered one of the most famous German story-tellers from the 17th century, and is especially noted for his book, "Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus" (The Adventurous Simpleton). The house is still standing in the Schmidtgasse, were the author was born.

In the Langgasse is the house where Philipp Reis (1834-1874) was born, who in addition to Alexander Graham Bell, is considered the inventor of the telephone.

Godobertus Chapel

The oldest building in the city is the Godobertus Chapel, which must have been built in the early 12th century. This small chapel lies in the old village, once known as "Godebrechtshusen" – a settlement that was in existence before the city was founded in 1170. The architectural forms of the early 12th century are still clearly visible today, even though this building has suffered the passage of time; especially the portal and the round arched windows show that this building is very old. Remnants of frescoes are still visible in the choir arches – they were from the Gothic period.

St. Peter's Church - Inside

In 1108 Duke Ditmar of Gelnhausen donated land for a monastery around 15 km west of Gelnhausen, in the part of town known today as Langenselbold for building the Selbold Monastery. It belonged to the Arch-Deaconal (Bishop’s Administration) of the Minor Monastery of St. Mary ad gradus from Mainz and was under protection of the Archbishop of Mainz and Imperial Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire. Ever since the foundation of this monastery, the had patron’s rights granted from the church in Gelnhausen – evidence that churches and chapels had already existed in the settlements around the royal court and in the area of the new town of Gelnhausen. Patron’s rights meant that only church authorities of the Selbold Monastery could have churches built, hold services, preach and collect donations (tighthes). In a document dated March 8, 1229, a dispute between the Father Superior and the Sheriff of Gelnhausen was reported; a delegation from the Archbishop of Mainz, which served to mediate this dispute, upheld the rights of the Father Superior of the Selbold Monastery in church and religious matters in Gelnhausen, and was exempt from municipal taxes, and prohibited the Sheriff’s obvious attempts to designate church priests for Gelnhausen that did not originate from the Selbold Monastery.

St. Peter's Church

In the year 1200 the people of Gelnhausen decided to build a church, which – different than St. Mary’s Church- was not to be under protection of a patron, but rather under state protection. This was how the St. Peter’s Church was founded, which according to original plans, was supposed to be more impressive and ornate than St. Mary’s Church. Some of this planning can still be deducted from the architectural details. After playing several roles throughout the run of history, such as serving as a storage room, a military hospital and even a cigar factory, St. Peter’s was finally fully rebuilt and restored at the beginning of the 20th century, and has been a Catholic Church since 1938. The furnishings in St. Peter’s creatively combine medieval architectural elements with contemporary furnishings.

In the early 13th century, the wealthy and confident middle class of Gelnhausen decided to erect a municipal Catholic church, whose appearance would please it’s citizens and God. The cornerstone of the church must have been lain around the same period.

St. Peter’s Church in Gelnhausen was originally supposed to be a three-nave basilica in late Romanesque architectural style. The main and side naves were supposed to be longer than they are today. The cross nave is most likely the same size it was originally planned to be. The altar nave was originally planned to be semi-circular or square, and was supposed to fit smoothly onto the cross nave. If it was ever built as planned, will never be known. On both sides of the planned altar nave, a round tower was built on each side. The planned dimensions of the main nave and the side naves can be measured along the north side, where you can still see the bases for planned arches on the west side of the cross nave. Accordingly there are triumph arches visible on the inside of the west side of the cross nave. The planning and the building of St. Peter’s obviously took different paths.

The Romanesque House

Below St. Mary’s Church, on the “Untermarkt” (Lower Marketplace), is the "Romanische Haus" (Romanesque House), the oldest still-standing government building in Germany. It was first mentioned in historical documents in 1370 – but was probably built during the Reichstag (Imperial Parliament) in 1180. Interesting to notice are the individual architectural similarities between this house and the Imperial Palatinate Palace.