Send Gift Baskets to Darmstadt, Germany

Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt 

The more than 150-year-old Hesse Regional Museum has an extensive assortment of exhibits, ranging from natural history to ancient archaeology, modern painting, and much more. With such a diverse range of categories at the museum, each visitor is guaranteed to find something they enjoy.

Mathildenhöhe 

In 1899, Ernst Ludwig, the Grand Duke of Hesse came up with the idea of creating a colony of artists to breathe new life into Darmstadt’s culture and economy. Mathildenhöhe has these amazing buildings designed by top architects like Behrens, Christiansen & Olbrich. They’ve now listed monuments and show what’s possible in contemporary architecture.

Hochzeitsturm 

Staying at Mathildenhöhe near Frankfurt? Don’t miss the iconic Wedding Tower, just shy of 50 meters tall and built-in 2008 to commemorate Ernst Ludwig’s wedding to Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms.

Schlossmuseum 

The museum has been open to the public since 1924, six years after Ernst Ludwig relinquished his ancestral collections when he abdicated in 1918. From the 1600s to the 1900s there are silverware, gold, dresses, porcelain, and more.

Messel Pit 

Darmstadt is home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is recognized as the richest fossil source from the Eocene Epoch. The pit is open to tourists now, who can take an hour-long tour where they get to learn about the history and methods of fossil excavation. Guides also allow people to touch recently unearthed specimens if they want – what a sight!

Museum Künstlerkolonie Darmstadt 

The south facade is sure to catch your eye for its ornate curved entrance doorway with luxuriant floral ornamentation and a pair of sculptures representing man and woman. The museum offers many exhibits that focus on the Mathildenhöhe Exhibition of 1899 to 1914. You can peruse detailed exhibits of arts and crafts created for this event including furniture, sculpture, jewelry, and pottery.

Waldspirale 

The name “Waldspirale” (forest spiral) refers partly to the roof, which is planted with a grove of trees. The building is in the Bürgerparkviertel and rises to 12 stories high. It holds 105 apartments. From the outside, you can see its intertwining bands of texture, soft curves, and seemingly random window designs. This gives it a playful, childlike quality.

Herrngarten 

Darmstadt’s historic and largest park was originally formed by combining three smaller parks. In 1766 it was then redesigned in the English style according to orders from Landgrave Caroline, then in 1811 Grand Duke Ludwig launched renovations that made it into a Garden.

Ludwigsmonument 

Nicknamed “Langer Ludwig” (Tall Ludwig), this 40-meter column and statue on Luisenplatz are one of Darmstadt’s major landmarks. This honors the first Hessian Constitution and depicts Ludwig I, the first Grand Duke of Hesse, and by the Rhine, who ruled from 1815 until 1848. The neoclassical monument was begun in 1841 when he was still alive and planned by architects Georg Moller and Balthasar Harres.

Park Rosenhöhe 

Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria’s Park was first landscaped at the turn of the 18th century and a Neoclassical Mausoleum, built in 1828 – as she too sadly died before her father – stands as a monument not just to her but to all those buried here.

Russian Chapel 

Sitting under the Hochzeitsturm, this church with its onion domes of gold reminds you that Darmstadt was the birthplace of Empress Anna. All of the building materials for this church were sourced from Russia, and it is even claimed that the foundation of the buildings sits on railway ties that were imported to Norway.

Großherzoglich-Hessische Porzellansammlung 

Ernst Ludwig decided to open up his stash of porcelain and other ceramics to the public at the Rococo Prinz-Georg-Palais in 1908. This was a building from 1710. The museum is open on Fridays and weekends and features the Hessian Grand Duke’s collection of paintings. We have a variety of pieces, acquired over the last century.

Jagdschloss Kranichstein 

Jagdschloss Kranichstein was a hunting lodge and grand palace which entertained generations of Landgraves and Grand Dukes on their court hunts. Now the palace is divided between a hotel, restaurant, and museum.

European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) 

The purpose of this center is to operate space vessels in orbit, build operational systems for managing space missions, and maintain the ESA’s network of global tracking stations. At any one time, over 10 spacecraft are being controlled from this one facility and the people working there never stop. They work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Zoo Vivarium Darmstadt 

The zoo is on a relatively small two-hectare space, but it still accommodates 190 different animal species in its many green enclosures, terrariums, and aquariums. There are plenty of opportunities outside to meet animals, like Bennett’s tree-kangaroos or the African dwarf goats in the petting zoo.