Dr. Gisela Thews Square on Große Langgasse is a place to linger and take a deep breath.

Whether for a short break during your lunch hour, a breather while strolling through the city, or to read a book, the terraces surrounding the blooming garden of Dr.-Gisela-Thews-Platz invite you to enjoy a coffee or a light meal.

While the wooden seating invites adults to relax, children can let off steam on the playground equipment. The shock-absorbing floor protects the little adventurers from injuries.

This was not always the case.

Historically, Große Langgasse was once an important access road to the city center and lived up to its name: the street was extremely narrow and long, making it difficult to navigate. During World War II, bombing raids reduced Große Langgasse to rubble. In the post-war period, Langgasse was reorganized and expanded, but urban design was neglected. Dr.-Gisela-Thews-Platz, for example, was a parking lot where cars circled close together. That is currently changing: Große Langgasse is to become an important thoroughfare in the city center and, at the same time, a living space for people.

Dr.-Gisela-Thews-Platz shines in new splendor, lending Große Langgasse a lively charm and connecting Schillerplatz via Tritonplatz with the local recreation area on the banks of the Rhine as a new green place to take a break.

After almost five years of construction, the newly designed small Stephansgarten was opened to the public in 2013. What began in 2007 as a landscaping project led to a redesign of the Stephansgarten: at that time, the poor condition of the retaining walls surrounding the garden was discovered, requiring immediate renovation. The necessary measures to preserve the historic retaining wall provided an opportunity to redesign Stephansgarten and upgrade it as a green space.

This is how the terraced and now beautifully planted small garden came into being—a place of peace and relaxation. Sitting on the wooden bench and letting your gaze wander down to the city, you have St. Stephen's Cathedral behind you and a view of the cathedral—you can't get much more Mainz than that. Discover the newly designed Stephansgarten for yourself!

The new Hopfengarten is a peaceful place to linger in Mainz's old town.

Several old, spreading plane trees and raised beds lined with cushions provide a shady spot at the end of Augustinerstraße on hot summer days.

Tables and chairs from the cafés and restaurants around the square invite you to take a little break and watch the hustle and bustle around you.

On Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., traders and producers set up their stalls in the Hopfengarten. The small old town market offers cheese, Italian and French specialties, fruit, vegetables, game products, and fresh juices. Wine, sparkling wine, and coffee are also served. Incidentally, the coffee cart is an old blue Citroën and adds a charming touch on market days.

Historically, the Hopfengarten has always been a place where people worked and lived. The Romans already appreciated the location, drained the area near the Rhine, and made it usable. Over time, it became an attractive location for craftsmen and tradesmen. In the Middle Ages, oil mills, breweries, and bakeries stood here alongside residential buildings and gardens. At the beginning of the 20th century, coppersmiths, brewers, maltsters, and hauliers with horse stables were still located around the Hopfengarten. In our time, the Hopfengarten was used as a parking lot for more than forty years.

Since 2017, peace and quiet have returned here.

Monastery gardens have design principles that date back to the early Middle Ages. The transfer of the cross shape, the special marking of the center, and the layout of paths as streams of the Garden of Eden are characteristic features. Often, the self-contained monastery gardens were directly connected to a covered cloister in accordance with the monastic rule of "ora et labora" (pray and work). Such gardens had a long tradition in Mainz, but have disappeared over time for various reasons.

Sixty-five years after the complete destruction of the monastery of the Poor Clares Capuchin nuns in Mainz during the bombing raids of 1945, a monastery garden was once again created in accordance with these guiding principles, just in time for the 150th anniversary
of the order's founding. The approximately square garden area is bordered on the west by the privacy screen of the covered cloister, on the north by the "Am Kronberger Hof" parking garage, on the east by the partially historic wall facing Gymnasiumstraße, and on the south by the preserved, slightly elevated basement of the previously destroyed church. From one of the two entrances to the cloister, a curved path paved with cobblestones leads to the preserved vaulted cellar of the previous church. In the midst of the wild, partially preserved tree population, the new monastery garden was created as an open space for the nuns living in strict seclusion.

Visitors can visit the front monastery garden, newly laid out in 2010, by appointment and enjoy the monastic silence amid the colorful flora.

It is not without reason that Goetheplatz is often referred to as the heart of Mainz's Neustadt district. Named in 1908 after the poet, statesman, and natural scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), who stayed in Mainz several times, the area between Goethe- and Colmarstraße offers leisure activities for young and old alike.

The large, park-like square is particularly attractive for families with children. If you're looking to cool off in summer but don't want to go to the swimming pool, this is the place for you. A large water playground promises wet refreshment for little ones. Water fountains and the elephant slide into a knee-high pool make playing in the square a little adventure for children. Wave-shaped objects run into the pool and oval "cushions" invite you to sit in the cool water. Even the youngest children with sun hats on their heads appreciate the refreshing water. Meanwhile, mom and dad can pass the time by treading water.

Goetheplatz also has a large adventure playground—a kind of river or swamp landscape with logs made of robinia wood. In addition to climbing frames made of hard rubber and a tree house, there is a slide and swings. Seating areas ensure that parents can comfortably keep an eye on their children in the shade of the trees.

A spacious lawn and mature trees on Goetheplatz invite visitors to enjoy a picnic or relax on one of the park benches.

A total of five daycare centers, a retirement home, and a roller skating club are located around the Goetheplatz area.

The squares in Mainz's Neustadt district have been undergoing a positive transformation in recent years. There is a lot going on: fresh, lively, innovative. Gartenfeldplatz, located between Kurfürstenstraße and Frauenlobstraße, in particular, is increasingly becoming the modern "hotspot" of this young district.

The green space with mature trees, which was already included in the alignment plan of 1875, is within walking distance of Mainz Central Station. The square, which was only completed in its present form at the beginning of the 20th century, was named after the "Gartenfeld," the northern fortress grounds of the city, which remained largely undeveloped for centuries, not least for defensive reasons.

Private vegetable gardens predominated on the site, which used to be several meters lower. The garden field with its shady avenues was a popular place for strolling. Today, Gartenfeldplatz and Gartenfeldstraße, which leads to it, form a monument zone of particular historical and urban significance.

There are many small, owner-operated shops and playgrounds in Neustadt—including at Gartenfeldplatz. While the little ones slide, swing, or build sandcastles, the grown-ups can relax on park benches or lie in the sun on the large wooden platform facing Kurfürstenstraße and enjoy themselves. Whether it's coffee and cake, a refreshing ice cream, a cold beer, or special culinary and vegetarian delicacies, all this and more can be found around Gartenfeldplatz in the many small cafés and pubs.

Feldbergplatz and the adjacent Grüne Brücke (Green Bridge) form a popular recreational area in Mainz's Neustadt district with a playground and dense tree population. Feldbergplatz, located between Rheinallee and the banks of the Rhine, lies on the site of the riverbank extension carried out between 1880 and 1887. The central area of the square is occupied by a tree-lined green space with a playground, while the Caponniere, a fortification dating from 1887, forms the boundary to the Rhine.

Since 1977, Feldbergstraße and Feldbergplatz have been connected to the banks of the Rhine via Rheinallee by the so-called "Green Bridge" designed by environmental artist Dieter Magnus. A more recent creation by Magnus is the striking tree house on the playground. During the redesign at the end of the 1970s, table tennis tables were also installed and a sand area for playing boules was created. Mighty plane trees, maples, and chestnuts give the square on the banks of the Rhine a peaceful atmosphere and shade in summer.

The square was named after the Großer Feldberg, the highest mountain in the Taunus range, on April 23, 1890. Feldbergplatz is designated as a monument zone and some of the adjacent buildings are listed as cultural monuments. There is an open bookcase at the eastern end of the square. Here you can drop off books or browse for interesting reads yourself.

The Green Bridge was built to create a green axis from the central Goetheplatz via Sömmeringplatz to Feldbergplatz and the banks of the Rhine. In line with the environmental artist's intention to cover as much of the structure as possible with plants, the Green Bridge is home to numerous trees, shrubs, and vines. In addition to benches, two fountains—the Findlingsbrunnen and the Wasserfall—invite visitors to linger.

The Green Bridge area is maintained by the Nature Conservation Union (NABU) Mainz. By planting native wild plants and installing nesting sites, a diverse habitat has been created.

The raspberry variety "Mainzer Waldfee," the velvet rose "Finther Zwerg," and a local subspecies of the climbing dog rose can be admired here. The nectar-rich wild plants serve as food sources for insects such as bumblebees and large wool bees. The numerous insects are a delight for pipistrelle bats, for which two roosts have been installed on either side of the waterfall. In summer

, small cabbage white butterflies, C-butterflies, and small tortoiseshell butterflies flutter around. Birds, such as blackcaps, also breed in the dense hedges on the natural area. The urban apiary on the Green Bridge, which maintains four beehives with 200,000 honey bees, offers a special nature experience.

Since 2007, one hundred Riesling and Pinot Noir vines planted by the Wine Senate have been growing and thriving there under the care of Hans-Willi Fleischer, head of the municipal winery. The stock of the celebrity vineyard is gradually being expanded as prominent contemporaries are invited by the Mainz Wine Senate to plant a new vine and thus acquire the honorary title of "Consitor Senatus Vineti" (planter of the Senate vineyard).

"But anyone who sees the abundance of water that is so skillfully channeled into the city to serve public purposes (...); anyone who looks at the high aqueducts that are necessary to guarantee proper transportation; anyone who thinks of the mountains that had to be pierced and the valleys that had to be filled in will admit that the globe has nothing more admirable to offer." Pliny the Elder sums up the pride of the Romans in their invention.

Water served not least to secure the standard of living of the population. With the help of an aqueduct, the precious liquid could be transported kilometers to military camps and cities. With the water pipeline in Mainz, the ancient occupying power achieved an architectural superlative: the highest aqueduct north of the Alps. The structure rose almost 35 meters above the valley floor to carry water from the springs in Finten and Drais to the legionary camp on the Kästrich. From the spring area, about nine kilometers away, the pipeline initially ran underground. However, due to the increasing gradient, it then continued above ground to overcome the greatest difference in altitude in Zahlbach.

Today, only remnants of these pillars remain—the Roman stones in the Zahlbach district. When walking along the remains of the aqueduct, imaginative people can travel back to times long past, when a Roman military camp without fresh water was unthinkable and military engineers calculated and built with precision to remedy this situation. Coming from the Roman stones, a trip to the nearby Wildgrabental valley is recommended.

Somewhat hidden between the buildings of the city center lies the small park at the Mainz retirement home. If you set out to look for it, you will come across a small green oasis in the middle of the noisy city center. Park benches invite you to spend your lunch break surrounded by greenery. Flower beds, a few trees, and a pond offer a welcome change of scenery in the densely built-up city center. 

From there, visitors can see the top of the St. Christoph memorial on one side and the red, late Gothic hall church of St. Quintin, which borders the park, on the other. The park
is accessible via Schusterstraße, the small Qunitinsgasse, and Altenauergasse.

When visiting the park, please bear in mind that the small park is primarily a place of rest and relaxation for the residents of the retirement home.