Imperial Hall

Brief information

In the Imperial Hall of Frankfurt City Hall, banquets were held after the coronation of new emperors, and later the room itself was turned into a gallery of power. Portraits were not simply hung here: in the mid-19th century, the hall was decorated with 52 images of German monarchs spanning a thousand years, from Charlemagne to Francis II. As a result, the space reads as a ceremonial room where celebration gave way to a historical showcase.

During the Second World War, Frankfurt’s old town and city hall were badly damaged, and the hall’s interior decoration was lost. After the restoration in 1952, the finishes were simplified, but the original portraits were returned. Because of this, the main point here is not the luxury of the interior, but how the surviving gallery preserves the hall’s former meaning.

What to notice right away

It is worth comparing the architecture and the portraits. The hall was altered several times to make it more representative: the flat ceiling was replaced with a wooden vault, the windows were enlarged, and later the room was repainted and partly gilded. These changes show that the space was adapted for ceremony, light, and the display of images, rather than left as an ordinary city hall room.

In the paintings themselves, scale and inscriptions matter. Most of the monarchs are painted almost life-size; at first, only the name was placed below in Gothic letters, and later mottos were added. One can also note the double portrait of Arnulf of Carinthia and Louis the Child. The most curious twist comes from the composition of the gallery: some disputed rulers are excluded, but Günther von Schwarzburg is included, probably because of his connection with Frankfurt as his burial place.