Every design for Frankfurt Am Main

Frankfurt spreads along the Main in the foreland of the Taunus, grown so closely into neighbouring Offenbach that the two form one continuous city. It is the largest city in Hesse, first recorded in the late eighth century, and for centuries the place where German kings were elected and, later, crowned as emperors.

What sets Frankfurt apart is how that past stands right beside a cluster of towers, the reason the city is nicknamed Mainhattan. The Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus still rises over the centre, while the Hauptwache and the Börse sit in the middle of daily traffic. For nearly five centuries this was a free city; it lost that status when Prussia annexed it, yet it kept its trading instinct, and today it is home to the European Central Bank and one of the world's great book fairs.

On a weekday morning, commuters with coffee cups hurry past the Hauptwache while the old Eschenheimer Turm looks on, unbothered by yet another century of change.