Römer, Frankfurt (Kaisersaal)

The Römer has served as Frankfurt's city hall since 1405, when the city council purchased a cluster of medieval merchant houses on the Römerberg square and joined them into a single administrative complex; the stepped-gable facade facing the square has become one of Germany's most recognizable civic images. Its most historically significant room, the Kaisersaal (Emperor's Hall) on the first floor, was built as a banqueting hall and used from the 17th century onward to host the celebratory feasts that followed imperial coronations at the nearby cathedral. The hall today displays a chronological gallery of 52 painted portraits of Holy Roman Emperors, from Charlemagne, included as the founding figure though never crowned there, through Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, who abdicated in 1806. The portraits, largely 19th-century historicist works commissioned to fill gaps in the original cycle, are arranged in a continuous sequence around the room beneath a coffered wooden ceiling. The building was almost completely destroyed during the Allied bombing of Frankfurt on 22 March 1944, which left only the facade and outer walls standing; the interior, including the Kaisersaal, was reconstructed from photographs and archival drawings between 1954 and 1957, and the exterior stepped gables were rebuilt to their pre-war appearance in a broader restoration of the Römerberg square completed by 1983. The Römer remains a working seat of Frankfurt's city government, and the Kaisersaal continues to be used for civic ceremonies and receptions, meaning access to the room is periodically restricted.