Hanau: Fairy Tales, History and the Main Cycle Path

Hanau combines places associated with fairy tales and city history with museums, historic buildings and cycle paths. The Brothers Grimm National Monument, the fairy-tale trail and the interactive GrimmsMärchenReich each offer a different focus; topics range from gold- and silversmithing to Hanau’s history. When planning your stay, you can start by deciding whether you would like to spend more time on culture, shared discoveries or outdoor activities. These priorities can also guide your search for accommodation in Hanau.

Discover history, craftsmanship and fairy tales

The German Goldsmiths’ House is a half-timbered building in the Late Renaissance style and is used as a museum of gold- and silversmithing. This makes craftsmanship part of Hanau’s cultural offering, alongside the city’s history. Children aged eight and over can make their own piece of jewellery in a workshop under the guidance of trained goldsmiths. If you would like to include this activity in your plans, check the current dates before your visit.

The Walloon-Dutch Church in Hanau’s New Town is an important site in the city’s history. It was built between 1600 and 1608 for Walloon and Dutch religious refugees who began settling there in 1597. The Old Town’s architectural history reaches back even further: the Gothic choir of St Mary’s Church was added to a small chapel between 1485 and 1492 and is now the oldest surviving building in Hanau’s Old Town.

The Brothers Grimm National Monument was inaugurated on 18 October 1896. Since then, it has become a landmark and a central meeting place for the people of Hanau. The Hanau Fairy-Tale Trail complements the monument with ten fairy-tale sculptures in the city centre. It also includes the sites of the former birthplaces and homes of the Grimm family, as well as the National Monument on Neustädter Marktplatz. This lets you explore fairy-tale themes and places associated with the Grimm family as individual stops on your tour of the city.

At Philippsruhe Palace, two different attractions offer distinct ways to explore culture and history. The collections of the Hanau Historical Museum at Philippsruhe Palace comprise around 20,000 objects relating to local and European history, from the Middle Ages to the present day. At GrimmsMärchenReich, children and adults can explore seven fairy-tale worlds interactively and through multimedia across more than 340 square metres. It is Germany’s first hands-on Brothers Grimm museum. The two attractions therefore have different focuses: collections on history in one, and an interactive fairy-tale experience in the other.

You can also discover a piece of regional technology and industrial history in Großauheim. The Großauheim Museum displays a steam-powered traction engine with a threshing machine, a steam tractor and a small tractor with an internal combustion engine made by the Josef Bautz company. Josef Bautz manufactured tractors in Großauheim in the 1950s.

Walks and outdoor excursions

Wilhelmsbad brings together several unusual attractions: the carousel building, designed as a Roman round temple; the Schneckenberg viewing hill; Devil’s Gorge with its swaying suspension bridge; an artificial castle ruin; and an artificial pond with an island. The variety of attractions makes Wilhelmsbad a destination in its own right for a day of your stay, whether you are more interested in designed architecture or distinctive landscape features.

The Green Ring is ideal for walking, hiking and cycling, and there are numerous restaurants along the route. For a riverside cycling stage, the Main Cycle Path runs through Hanau along the left bank of the Main in the Klein-Auheim and Steinheim districts. The Hessian long-distance cycle route R3 runs from Rüdesheim am Rhein via Wiesbaden, Hanau, Gelnhausen, Schlüchtern and Fulda to Tann in the Rhön. Before setting off, check the latest route details with the responsible official provider.

A guided cycling tour links other Hanau stops and provides historical context: it leads from the city library at Schlossplatz via Wilhelmsbad spa gardens to Philippsruhe Palace and the Hanau Historical Museum, then along the Main to Steinheim and through the historic Old Town to the Renaissance palace of the Prince-Electors of Mainz. A knowledgeable guide explains the historical background. Unlike a self-planned cycling tour, the described experience includes these guided explanations.

Hanau offers a range of themes, so you do not have to limit your stay to just one focus.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Langenselbold, Sinntal, Bad Orb, Hasselroth, Linsengericht, Bruchköbel, Ronneburg, Hammersbach.

Go to the main travel overview: Main-Kinzig District.