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I hereby declare Speyer to be a suburb of Mainz. Temporarily, at least.
(It’s only a hop, skip and a jump of 80km or so down the road and the way Mrs jb drives, you’re there in a flash…)
If it’s on your travel itinerary, you’ll know that the Cathedral was recognised as one of the most important Romanesque monuments from the time of the Holy Roman Empire and elevated to its current status as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981.
And if you look back down the main drag, you’ll see the Town Gate – at 55m, one of the tallest in Germany.
And then there’s the Jewish Courtyard, Memorial Church, City Hall, St. Magdalena, St. Ludwig, Fish Market, Sculpture Garden and Old Mint.
That’s all that speyer.de deems worthy of mention on their Tourism page on the interweb.
They’ve missed out a classic.
The Archäologisches Schaufenster – the Archeological Shopfront.
It’s an outpost of the State Government’s Conservation Department in Mainz, with the usual administrative functions, storage areas for archaeological finds and so forth.
But on the ground floor, they’ve got a look-through-the-glass-window and-watch-the-conservationist-at-work area and an exhibition space, where they’ve had a curator at work who definitely knows his or her stuff.
You’ll frequently encounter exhibitions which are collections of …bits and pieces.
Not here.
These displays have context – they’re articles unearthed during the excavations of Eisenberg, a Roman artisan settlement between Speyer and Mainz, dating from the earliest Roman colonisation to the 5th C AD – and walking around, you see how the items were used in everyday life and from which location and environment they were sourced.
And of course we had the absolutely enchanting Frau Weinberger to give us an impromptu introduction that turned into one of the best tours of an exhibition that I can recall.
Full of enthusiasm, knowledgeable without being intellectual or academic, willing (and able) to discuss aspects of the exhibition – an absolute treat.
In the courtyard in front of the building, you really can window-shop.
The two stylised structures on the left (Roman buildings in their original size) are double-glazed – as it were – with exhibits to whet one’s appetite for the good stuff within.
And the structure in the foreground is the recreation of a Frankish burial site, with the red sandstone slab casket in the centre and the burial mound suggested by the semi-circular contour of the Cor-Ten steel sheet.
In fact, it was so good, I think I’ll revisit in spring.
There’s also the added attraction of Mr Ho’s Asian restaurant in the Kutschergasse – everything cooked in the wok before your very eyes. And nothing costs more than €8.
(“Oh! You’re from New Zealand?” he says ” I’m from Hong Kong. Just around the corner…”)
And an Apple Premium Reseller.
So I know where I’m buying my iMac…
Mainz Daily Photo 