Are there any historical cathedrals near Frankfurt that I can visit?

Question

I am an American organist who may have the opportunity to travel to Frankfurt am Main, Germany soon. I have not seen that Frankfurt is particularly good for tourism but I would be very interested in perhaps visiting any nearby historical cathedrals and churches, especially ones with old pipe organs, if there are any.

Can an organist or local expert provide any advice?

Answer 1

There are many old(ish) monumental churches all over Western Europe, here are a few options (based mostly on architecture as I don't know anything about organs):

• Cologne is certainly well-known and well worth it and it's also easy to reach by train (high speed link to Frankfurt, the cathedral is in front of the main train station).
• Mainz, Worms (technically not a cathedral anymore) and Speyer are close to Frankfurt (although the train won't get you there much faster than to Cologne). The cathedral in Speyer in particular is well-known and, like the one in Cologne, part of UNESCO world heritage. Architecturally, it's a Romanesque building so an interesting contrast to the Cologne cathedral. The cathedral in Trier also has the same distinction but it's a bit further away.
• Aachen is also further away (2.5 to 3 hours from Frankfurt by train) but I personally found the Dom very interesting. It's very old and quite unique compared to other European churches.
• There are many less famous old churches closer to Frankfurt. The cathedrals in Limburg and Fulda or the St.-Marienkirche in Marburg could for example be interesting (as I said, I don't know much about organs but the last one seems to have a notable one).
• There are many other interesting churches in Bavaria (Ulm, Bamberg, Passau for the organ…) or Eastern Germany (Naumburg, Magdeburg, Dreden…) but that might be a bit too far for you.