Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

This guide to the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt starts with its plain name, Schirn, Hessian dialect for a shed, and traces it back to the medieval guild butchers who ran open-air meat stalls on this exact ground beside the cathedral. It follows the site through the firebombing of March 1944, nearly four decades standing empty, and the 1986 rebuild that put a glass-domed rotunda where the butchers once weighed their sausages. Walk the sandstone facade beside you and you'll pass fifty pillars, where newlyweds from the nearby registry office still pose for photos.