For its central location, Frankfurt is known as the “Gateway to Europe” — and travelers often only pass through, using it as a transit point to other major destination cities. More recently, however, Frankfurt has been going by a different moniker, which refers to the city’s emerging position as an exciting new destination on the Old Continent.

Frankfurt has become “Mainhattan.”

Spread along both banks of the Main River (hence its formal name, Frankfurt am Main), the city has always held a special place in German history. Not only did it give the country its most famous writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose house is tucked away on a small downtown street, but it was also the site of important elections, and the coronations of kings and emperors of the Roman Empire. And the history is still a major tourism draw, even though many sites had to be rebuilt after the World War II.

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