Saalhof and the Rententurm

About this place

The Saalhof is a cluster of buildings on the north bank of the Main that contains the oldest structure still standing in Frankfurt. At its core is an imperial palace of the Hohenstaufen era dating from around twelve hundred, together with its palace chapel, the Saalhofkapelle. Very little of Germany's imperial palace architecture survives in any city centre, which makes this particular masonry the most valuable thing in the old town even though it draws no attention from the street. The complex grew in layers. The Rententurm, the toll tower, was built between fourteen fifty-four and fourteen fifty-six by Eberhard Friedberger and is one of the few towers left from the late Gothic town fortifications; its job was to watch the river quay and take duty on goods. The baroque Bernuspalais followed in the early eighteenth century, and the Burnitz building and the customs house arrived in eighteen forty-two, so the group reads as an architectural record of seven centuries. The buildings now house the Historisches Museum Frankfurt. The five surviving monuments were thoroughly restored between two thousand and eight and two thousand and twelve, and a modern wing opened alongside them in twenty seventeen. Eight euros buys the permanent exhibitions and twelve the whole museum. Monday is closed and the new building stays open until nine on Thursdays. Allow two hours if you want the museum rather than just the chapel.