Hessen Travel Guide

With a population of 6 million inhabitants, Hessen is the fifth largest 'Bundesland' (regional state) in Germany, covering an area of 21,000 sqkm. The state is the most important financial centre in the country and has one of the strongest economies of any region in Europe. Not only is Hessen a pivot of finance with over 400 banks, the stock exchange and the Bundesbank (Germany's central bank, setting interest rates and controlling money supply) in Frankfurt am Main; it is also an important industrial and technological base, host to countless international trade fairs and the site of the Rhine-Main airport, largest freight carrier and second-largest passenger airport in Europe.

At the same time Hessen is a typical vacation region full of diversion: sailboarding, windsurfing and sailing at the Edersee, hang-gliding and gliding at the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön, skiing and toboggan at the Feldberg in the Taunus, horse-riding while making camping on a farm. Hessen offers lots of golf, wandering, cycling and tennis facilities. Wiesbaden is a famous international spa and also the capital of Hessen. Frankfurt am Main, or 'Mainhatten' is a commercial and industrial city and offers you a lot of really interesting museums. A cultural jewel is also the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel. The old university town of Marburg with the early Gothic Elisabethkirche attracts visitors from all over the world. Worth to be seen are also the small town of Miltenberg and Worms with its cathedral.

Small cities with half-timbered houses can be visited in all parts of Hessen.