Frankfurt's only surviving medieval monastery complex, with Jörg Ratgeb's murals and exhibitions by the Institut für Stadtgeschichte – free admission.
June 17, 2025 – August 31, 2027
Photographs by press photographer Mickey Bohnacker in the dormitory show how postwar Frankfurt, under American influence, transformed from a field of rubble into a modern city.
In the mid-13th century, monks of the Carmelite order settled in Frankfurt. From modest lodgings, a complete monastery complex with church, cloister, refectory and residential wings had grown by around 1500, financed mainly by endowments from Frankfurt patrician families, who in return secured burial places and masses. Between 1514 and 1521 the Swabian painter Jörg Ratgeb, a contemporary of Dürer and Grünewald, decorated the cloister and refectory with large murals depicting the history of salvation and the history of the order.
With secularization in 1803, the monastery passed to the city and was put to other uses, including as barracks; much of the painting was lost in the process. After World War I, friends of the old town campaigned for its preservation; in World War II the complex was badly damaged. Reconstruction began in 1951, and the city archive moved in in 1959. In the 1980s a team from Warsaw restored the surviving Ratgeb paintings, and the ruined church was converted into exhibition space for what is now the Archäologisches Museum.
Since 1998 the Institut für Stadtgeschichte (Institute for City History) – the city's memory, with holdings from the early Middle Ages to the present – has also used the cloister, refectory and dormitory; following a renovation completed in 2010, these rooms are open to the public. Alongside the permanent exhibition on Ratgeb's murals, the institute presents changing exhibitions on Frankfurt's history and retrospectives of Frankfurt artists in the dormitory, with free admission.
Admission is free.
| Groups | –Group tours (approx. 60–90 minutes) for up to 25 people €100, on weekdays 9:00–18:00; request at least 14 days in advance via the online form or by phone at 069 212-33955. |
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| Public guided tour of the special exhibition | €8Reduced €4; no reservation needed. |
Free admission to all exhibitions. The guided tours of the Ratgeb murals on the third Sunday of the month are also open to the public.
According to the institute, the exhibitions are wheelchair-accessible.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
Karmeliterkloster
U1–U5 and U8 to Willy-Brandt-Platz; tram 11, 12 and 14 to Karmeliterkloster.
No on-site parking at the museum.
No on-site parking; the Kaiserplatz (Bethmannstraße), Hauptwache (Kornmarkt) and Römer parking garages are close by.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
Up to 240 guests.
Spaces available for rent include the refectory (up to 240 people), the cloister (up to 200), the cloister garden (up to 180, e.g. for concerts and receptions), the dormitory (up to 120), the parlatorium (seminar room for up to 35) and the foyers, also in combination. The monastery church can be booked through the Archäologisches Museum.
Inquiries & details| Guided tours | yes · approx. 60 min |
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| Audio guide | yes |
| School programs | yes |
| Good to know | Public guided tours of the Ratgeb murals every third Sunday of the month at 15:00; tours of special exhibitions as listed in the calendar. An audio guide and multimedia guides to the murals run in the web browser on your own smartphone. The archive's education team offers programs for middle and high school classes. |
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