Mainz — Mainz Map Poster

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Mainz Map Poster

Mainz stands on the left bank of the Rhine, directly opposite the point where the Main flows in from the east. That confluence is the key to the map: two rivers meet, bridges cross toward Wiesbaden and Kastel, and the city lines up along the western bank. The capital of Rhineland-Palatinate began as the Roman camp of Mogontiacum and has faced the river ever since.

The old town is a tight cluster of lanes around the red sandstone Cathedral of St Martin, with the market square beside it. North of the centre, the Neustadt follows a very different pattern: a planned grid of long, straight streets laid out in the late nineteenth century. Around both, the railway, the university campus and residential quarters spread toward the higher ground to the west.

Johannes Gutenberg developed printing with movable type in Mainz in the fifteenth century, and the university and a museum carry his name. A Mainz map poster, itself a printed sheet, suits that history. The city also takes its carnival season very seriously. On paper, though, what stands out is the river front and the contrast between the old lanes and the newer grid.