Städel Museum

The Städel on Frankfurt's Museumsufer is one of Germany's oldest civic art museums, founded in 1815 through the bequest of merchant and banker Johann Friedrich Städel — an early and influential model of private cultural philanthropy that still governs the institution as an independent foundation. Its collection of around 4,300 paintings spans seven centuries, from Jan van Eyck and Botticelli through Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Impressionists to Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon. The 2012 underground extension is architecturally striking: 195 circular skylights punctuate the garden lawn above, flooding 3,000 square meters of contemporary galleries with natural light while leaving the Gründerzeit main building untouched. On Wednesdays and Thursdays the museum stays open until 9 pm, making evening visits noticeably quieter than daytime hours.

Founded 1815, 700 years of art — Vermeer, Tischbein's Goethe, Beckmann and a new underground gallery.