Zeil

The Zeil is the main shopping street of Frankfurt am Main, a broad pedestrian boulevard in the Innenstadt that runs east from Hauptwache toward Konstablerwache. It is roughly one kilometre long and lined with department stores, high-street chains, cafés and arcades, making it the first stop for most visitors who want to shop in the Hesse capital. The most striking building is the MyZeil shopping centre, whose spiral glass-and-steel facade, a funnel-shaped opening in the front, was designed by the Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas and opened in 2009. Inside, the mall stacks several floors of shops, with an ice rink and restaurants on the upper levels. At the western end, the Hauptwache, a baroque former guardhouse, now holds a café, and the Katharinenkirche stands beside it. Pedestrians move freely along the street, and in warm weather street musicians, stalls and café terraces spill onto the paving. Most shops open from about 10:00AM to 8:00PM from Monday to Saturday and close on Sunday, in line with German trading rules, so planning a visit on a Sunday means seeing little more than the architecture. A walk along the full street takes 1 to 2 hours depending on how many shops are entered. Weekday afternoons are comfortable, while Saturday is crowded, especially in the run-up to Christmas. The best architectural photos of MyZeil are taken from the pavement opposite, looking up at the funnel, and the rooftop of the mall offers a view of the street from above. Both Hauptwache and Konstablerwache are major U-Bahn and S-Bahn interchanges, so the street is easy to reach and can be walked in either direction. Konstablerwache hosts a weekly market, and the Römerberg lies a short walk to the south.