Near misses are always terrible. I vividly remember the sunny day I visited Speyer Cathedral for the first time, I guess ten years ago. And I also know that on the occasion I saved myself the hassle of visiting some Jewish ruins 200m down the road... In addition, I have been multiple times to Mainz, again not ticking of the cemetery. And having lived for years in Mannheim, a visit to Worms would have been in due order, too...

With the 2021 inscription of the ShUM sites I had to go again; my ambition is to have all German sites covered. Of the three locations, I picked Speyer. I had wanted to revisit the cathedral anyhow, the first visit being interrupted by mass. This time - by coincidence - I visited on the German Day of the Monument. As a result the site had guides and was free of charge.

Speyer is a rather small site, the highlight being the Mikva, the Jewish bath. There are ruins of a Synagogue and an onsite museum, providing some context. The signs were mostly in German. The whole town was still decorated with flags for the new inscription.

My Rating

It seems there are now two grumpy old man on the site. However, if Paul and I both come out on the same rating, I feel that I am in good company. ;) My explanation for the low rating is that this should never have been a separate site to begin with.

The site in Speyer is 200m from the Cathedral. Speyer has a nice old town to accompany the Mikva and the Cathedral, so extending the existing WHS to include old town and the Jewish ruins would have been a sensible thing to do. The template "Fancy Cathedral, Nice Old Town, some Jewish Remains" also applies to Worms and Mainz.

While all descriptions refer to Mainz, Worms, and Speyer as Jewish centers of study, they all fail to mention one other topic that groups them: Mainz, Worms and Speyer are Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire, specifically the Salian dynasty. The Salians had their powerbase in the area during - what a coincidence - the period where the ShUM sites came into existence. As such it's a bit weird to carve out only the Jewish heritage.

I am not a fan of serial sites to begin with. For me, they should have settled on extending Speyer.

Getting There

All locations are connected by frequent regional trains to the major transport hubs of Frankfurt and Mannheim. All sites can be reached on foot from the train station.

While You Are There

All cities being imperial cities with history dating back to the Romans, there is plenty to discover. All cities feature prominent cathedrals, with Speyer Cathedral a WHS on its own, and Worms a former tentative site. Mainz is a nice town renown for it's Carnival.

Other WHS in the area are the original Limes, Lorsch, Darmstadt and Grube Messel. Two former tents are also in the area, Schwetzingen and Heidelberg.