Things to do in Darmstadt: sights and places

Places on the “Darmstadt Beta Adventure” walk

• Artists' Colony (Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt)

  UNESCO World Heritage hill of the Artists' Colony, crowned by the Wedding Tower

• Artists' Colony Museum (Museum Künstlerkolonie)

  The Artists' Colony museum inside Olbrich's Ernst Ludwig House of 1901

• Bioversum Nature Museum (Jagdschloss Kranichstein)

  Hands-on biodiversity museum on the grounds of the Kranichstein hunting lodge

• Botanischer Garten der TU Darmstadt

  A teaching collection and quiet green refuge run by TU Darmstadt

• Centralstation Darmstadt

  A red brick power station from the 1880s, now one of the city's busiest stages

• Darmstadt State Theatre (Staatstheater Darmstadt)

  Three-branch state theatre in a concrete and glass complex from 1972

• Darmstadtium - Science and Congress Centre

  Glass science and congress centre built over the medieval city wall

• Datterich Fountain (Datterichbrunnen)

  Bronze figures from a Darmstadt dialect comedy, and you are meant to move them

• Großer Woog

  The city lake below Mathildenhöhe, still Darmstadt's favourite place to swim

• Herrngarten Park

  Darmstadt's oldest public park, open to everyone since 1801

• Hessian State Museum (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt)

  Universal museum where Messel fossils, Jugendstil and Block Beuys share a roof

• Hirtenwiese Menhir Site

  Neolithic standing stones in a meadow reserve, the only site of its kind in Hesse

• Hochzeitsturm

  Olbrich's five-gabled tower on Mathildenhöhe, with the best view in the city

• Hofgut Oberfeld

  A working organic farm with bakery and cafe on the fields east of the city

• HUB31 – Technology and Startup Center Darmstadt

  Technology and startup centre with offices, coworking and open workshops

• Jagdschloss Kranichstein

  The best preserved Renaissance hunting lodge in the region, with its museum

• Jazzinstitut Darmstadt

  Europe's largest public jazz archive, inside a baroque house in Bessungen

• Kunsthalle Darmstadt

  Post-war exhibition hall on Steubenplatz, given over to contemporary art

• Ludwig Monument (Ludwigsmonument)

  The 40 metre column on Luisenplatz that Darmstadt simply calls the Lui

• Luisenplatz

  The main square and transport hub the whole city passes through

• Mahnmal Kapellplatz

  Central memorial to the victims of the Brandnacht, inside the chapel ruin

• Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor

  Home of SV Darmstadt 98 at the edge of the city forest, known as the Bölle

• Orangerie Darmstadt

  Baroque hall and formal garden in Bessungen, built to overwinter citrus trees

• Palace Museum (Schlossmuseum Darmstadt)

  Court collections of the Hesse-Darmstadt house inside the Residenzschloss

• Park Rosenhöhe

  A rose park east of Mathildenhöhe, with the grand ducal mausoleums

• Platanenhain

  A grid of pollarded plane trees on Mathildenhöhe, with Hoetger's sculptures

• Prinz-Georg-Garten

  A small baroque garden beside the palace that holds the porcelain collection

• Residential Palace (Residenzschloss Darmstadt)

  The former ducal residence at the market square, now museum and university

• Rosenhöhe Mausoleen

  Two grand ducal mausoleums hidden in the roses of Park Rosenhöhe

• Russische Kapelle St. Maria Magdalena

  Gilded onion domes above the Lily Basin, built for the last Russian empress

• St Ludwig's Church (St. Ludwig)

  Moller's round classicist church under a green copper dome

• Stadtkirche Darmstadt

  The main Protestant church, rebuilt after 1944 as a deliberate redesign

• Synagoge Darmstadt

  The community's synagogue of 1988 and the memorial to the one burned in 1938

• Vivarium Darmstadt

  A compact municipal zoo built around living habitats rather than big paddocks

• Vortex Garden (Vortex Garten)

  A small private art garden on Mathildenhöhe where water turns into a vortex

• Waldkunstpfad Darmstadt

  A three kilometre art trail through the city forest, free and open all year

• Waldspirale

  Hundertwasser's curved housing block with a wooded roof and 105 flats

• White Tower (Weißer Turm)

  The whitewashed medieval tower left over from the old city wall

See the walk

Places on the “TU Darmstadt Orientation: Campus Stadtmitte S1” walk

• S1|01 University Centre, karo 5, Audimax

  TU Darmstadt's main entrance building and one of the first places new students meet the university.

• S1|02 Old Main Building, west wing

  The west wing of the Old Main Building links the historic campus with law, economics and digital university services.

• S1|03 Old Main Building

  A symbolic campus building where teaching, advice, learning spaces, culture and student representation meet.

• S1|05 Maschinenhaus

  A restored technical building with lecture and seminar spaces in the heart of the campus.

• S1|08 Mechanical Engineering

  A mechanical engineering building in the historic technical area of Stadtmitte, currently under renovation.

• S1|09 Maschinenbauhalle Centre

  A central mechanical engineering hall that represents the practical side of technical education, currently under renovation.

• S1|10 Printing Science Technology

  A specialized technical building for printing science, production processes and applied engineering.

• S1|11 Cafeteria, including Otto Berndt Hall

  One of the most social daily places on campus, with food, meeting space and the Otto Berndt Hall.

See the walk

Walks you can start right now

• Darmstadt Beta Adventure

  39 places · free

  Welcome to CitySeek Darmstadt, a social city-exploration game you play while walking. Your progress only unlocks when you actually arrive at real places, where you'll get short stories, local facts, and small…

• TU Darmstadt Orientation: Campus Stadtmitte S1

  8 places · free

  TU Darmstadt Orientation: Campus Stadtmitte S1 This CitySeek campus walk guides new students, guests and international visitors through the central S1 area of TU Darmstadt. The route introduces the main entrances,…

• h_da CityQuest

  38 places

  Thirty-eight places across Darmstadt, put together for new students at Hochschule Darmstadt who are still working out where anything is. This is not a campus tour. It goes where the city actually happens: the…

• h_da Erasmus+ Staff Week: Darmstadt City Walk

  9 places

  A self-guided city walk for guests of the h_da Erasmus+ International Staff Week: nine stops through the centre of Darmstadt and up to Mathildenhöhe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At every stop, the story of the…

• StadtDialog: Darmstadt Walking Tour

  8 places

  Discover Darmstadt through eight places that invite conversation about democracy, remembrance and living together. Start at Luisenplatz, then visit Centralstation, the palace and market square, the Stadtkirche,…