Hessendenkmal
Hessendenkmal stands in Mainz-Finthen as a red sandstone monument recalling the siege of Mainz and the site of Ludwig X’s former camp. Its stout obelisk rises from a base of rough stones. Grand Duke Ludwig III of Hessen-Darmstadt commissioned the monument in 1858 to honour Ludwig X and the siege. A shield relief carries a sword and oak leaves. The site marks the position of Ludwig X’s tent, where Hessian-Darmstadt troops held a strategic view of Mainz. Goethe also described the camp’s unusually grand tent.
An inscription recalls the siege, while a plaque added in 1993 records its bicentenary and the end of the Mainz Republic. An original wrought-iron fence surrounds the stone monument. The fence was restored in 2007, preserving a visible detail around this historical place in a residential area. Mainz has no other monument dedicated specifically to this event. French troops captured Mainz during the First Coalition War, and allied German forces later besieged the city. Heavy bombardment marked the prolonged siege around Mainz. The court sculptor Johann Baptist Scholl the Younger completed the monument by October 1858. Local people attended the public inauguration ceremony in Mainz.
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