"Greetings from Mainz" says the card. This pretty card was sent to me by Alexandra.
Mainz is the capital of
the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It was
the capital of the Electorate of Mainz at the time of the Holy
Roman Empire. In antiquity Mainz was a Roman fort city which commanded the west
bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman
Empire; it was founded as a military post by the Romans in the late 1st century
BC. The city is located on the river Rhine at its confluence with
the Main opposite Wiesbaden, in the western part of the Frankfurt
Rhine-Main; in the modern age, Frankfurt shares much of its regional
importance.
The city is famous as the home of the invention of the
movable-type printing press, as the first books printed using movable type
were manufactured in Mainz by Gutenberg in the early 1450s. Until the
twentieth century, Mainz was usually referred to in English as Mayence.
Mainz is located on the 50th latitude, on the west bank of the
river Rhine, opposite the confluence of the Main with the Rhine. The
population in the early 2012 was 200,957, an additional 18,619 people maintain
a primary residence elsewhere but have a second home in Mainz. The
city is part of the Rhein Metro area comprising 5.8 million people. Mainz can easily be
reached from Frankfurt International
Airport in 25 minutes by commuter railway.
