Hauptwache

The Hauptwache stands at An der Hauptwache in the centre of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and gives its name to the square and the main transit hub of the city. The Baroque guardhouse was built in 1729-1730 as the headquarters of the city's military guard and the place where prisoners were held. Its two-storey building has a hipped roof, a clock and a projecting porch, a modest scale that reflects the role of the free imperial city, which kept its own small force. In 1833 the building took centre stage in the Frankfurter Wachensturm, an attempt by revolutionaries to start a national uprising by storming the Hauptwache and the Konstablerwache. The attempt failed, but it is remembered as one of the early liberal movements before the revolution of 1848. In later years the building was used as a police station, and from the early 20th century it housed a café. Air raids in 1944 destroyed the interior and damaged the structure, and it was rebuilt in the 1950s in its original form. Beneath the square, the underground transport station links U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines and a shopping concourse, which turned the area into a central meeting point for commuters and shoppers. The small Baroque building contrasts with the nearby Katharinenkirche and the shopping streets of the Zeil, and it shows the layering of old and modern Frankfurt in a single view. Visitors can admire the exterior at any time, and the café inside is open at hours that vary. The square holds markets and events through the year. The Hauptwache lies close to the Goethe-Haus and the Paulskirche, so it works well as a starting point for a walking route through the city centre, and it is one of the easiest historic sites in the city to reach by public transport.