Oppenheim - Culture and Sightseeing

Culture and Sightseeing

Worth seeing are:

• Saint Catherine’s Church (Katharinenkirche) with its stained glass (the "Oppenheim Rose"), the most outstanding Gothic church on the Rhine between the Cologne Cathedral and the Strasbourg Cathedral; * * Landskron Castle’s ruins with a lovely view over the Rhine rift and of the other church buildings in Oppenheim, also a venue for festival plays and other cultural events;
• the Old Town with its marketplace, Town Hall from 1621 (with a column from Landskron Castle’s hall in front, which reputedly came from the Ingelheim Imperial Palace), the former town fortifications with Gautor, Rheintorpforte (gates), clocktower and town wall remnants, and unique museums (German Viticultural Museum, Town Museum.

Extraordinary is the Oppenheimer Kellerlabyrinth (“Oppenheim Cellar Labyrinth”) under the Old Town. On changing levels underground passageways, stairways and rooms link the houses and facilities with each other. In the Old Town’s heart, in the area of the Town Hall, there are altogether roughly 650 m of cellar passageways open to visitors and largely preserved in their historical state. It is believed, though, that what has been opened to the public is only about 3% of the total cellar area. The exact extent of the underground passageways is still not known with any great certainty, despite investigations commissioned by the town, but the length is at least 40 km. Guided tours through this unique underground labyrinth are offered all year round by the town’s tourism and festival play bureau. There are likewise town tours and night watchman tours.