As well as landmark buildings such as the Wedding Tower, visitors to Darmstadt can enjoy the broad range of art and culture offered by this "Art Nouveau town". The Mathildenhöhe artists' colony, founded by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig in 1899, is still a cultural focal point.

At the Art Nouveau Mathildenhöhe artists' colony, visitors can see the red and green Wedding Tower, the Russian Chapel with its golden onion domes, the exhibition building and the houses where the artists Glückert, Deiters and Olbrich lived. Luisenplatz with its 33-metre Ludwig's Column is the heart of the town. The "Forest Spiral" - a typical Friedensreich Hundertwasser building - brings the forest into the town.

The Hessian State Museum contains exhibits from pre-history and early history through to the 20th century. The Grand Ducal Porcelain Museum has rare examples of Hessen-Darmstadt Kelsterbach porcelain and items from the imperial Russian St. Petersburg porcelain factory.