GHDI logo
German History in Documents and Images
return to system

Mainz – Market in Front of the Cathedral (1840)
As an archbishopric and the seat of an elector, Mainz had a long history as a religious center. That changed, however, when French revolutionary troops occupied Mainz in 1793. The city was secularized ten years later. After the Congress of Vienna, Mainz became part of the principality of Hesse-Darmstadt. This view of the city’s market square is dominated by the Cathedral of St. Martin and St. Stephan, one of the of Rhineland’s three “imperial cathedrals." The other two could be found in Worms and Speyer. The architecture of these three cathedrals marked the highpoint of German Romanticism in the building arts. Lithograph after a drawing by Nicolas Chapuy (1790-1858), 1840.