Römerberg

This guide to the Römerberg in Frankfurt starts with architect Michael Guntersdorf defending a strange decision: rebuilding a medieval square from scratch, decades after Allied bombing raids in March 1944 burned the old marketplace to the ground. You'll hear how the site went from imperial coronations to ash to a blunt 1970s concrete slab before the city argued for decades over what to do with the wound. Listen for the detail about the salvaged stone Guntersdorf's team kept from that concrete building.