Hessen has been rebuilt from the ashes of World War II, which saw a number of its prominent cities heavily shelled. It is a modernized region, with continental Europe's premier airport at Frankfurt am Main. But its ties to the past remain very strong, with loads of Renaissance and Baroque architecture scattered in the region, and it also enjoys a portion of Germany's Rhineland wine country. The dominant architecture of the region is half-timber houses, particularly in some of the older towns (sadly, the war took too much of it away from the cities