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Top Sights in Lübeck, GermanyHolstentor, Rathaus, Marienkirche, Buddenbrookhaus, and Marzipan
Lübeck is famous for brick-Gothic architecture including the Marienkirche, Rathaus (Town Hall), and Holstentor, the Baroque Buddenbrook House, and Niederegger marzipan.
Lübeck has a wonderful old town located on an island in the Trave River. It preserved its original medieval town layout and has over a thousand listed buildings – both reasons contributing to its inclusion as one of more than 30 German sites on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list. Lübeck – the Queen of the HanseLübeck was founded in 1143 and by 1226 was a free imperial city. During the 14th century, it rose to the third largest city in Germany. Lübeck was known as “the Queen of the Hanse” as the representatives of the Hanseatic League, the most powerful economic union in Germany during the 14th and 15th centuries, usually met in Lübeck’s Rathaus. From the 17th to early 20th century, Lübeck was in economic decline but it is once again clearly a wealthy city of around 200,000 inhabitants. The symbol of Lübeck is the brick-Gothic Holstentor (town gate). The gate was erected during the 15th century when Lübeck was at the height of its power and wealth. It was built to impress and the actual defense purposes (and abilities) of this status symbol are rather limited. The Holstentor currently houses a local history museum. The Lübeck Rathaus AreaFrom the Holstentor, cross the Trave River into the island old town and turn left onto Breite Straße. The impressive brick-Gothic Rathaus (Town Hall) was where the representatives of the Hanseatic League usually met. The Lübeck Rathaus, built from 1250 onwards, displays numerous elements typical of secular Baltic brick-Gothic architecture – high, decorative walls and slender turrets. The lovely Dutch Renaissance external staircase was added in the late 16th century.
The Brick-Gothic Marienkirche, LübeckBehind the Rathaus is the lovely 13th-century, brick-Gothic Marienkirche (Mary’s Church) – Lübeck’s main contribution to European architecture. This marvelous brick building served as inspiration and prototype for the around 70 brick-Gothic churches that would follow in the Baltic region. The twin spires soar 125 m (410 ft) while the nave at 38.5 m (126 ft) is the highest brick nave in the world. At the back note the two fallen bells – they were left where they fell after the British air raids on Lübeck in 1942 as a reminder of the destruction of war. The Marienkirche is the third largest church in Germany. Lübeck-Born Novelist Tomas Mann and the BuddenbrookhausAt the north of the church is the Baroque Buddenbrookhaus – famous from the novel Die Buddenbrooks, 1901, by 1929 Nobel literary laureate Thomas Mann. Thomas Mann spent many childhood summers here and the house is central in his novel on the decline and fall of a rich Lübeck mercantile family. A century on, Mann’s language is still modern and fresh. The Buddenbrook house was damaged during the war but the façade is true to the original. The modern interior houses a museum dedicated to the brothers Thomas and Heinrich Mann, both accomplished writers who had to flee Nazi Germany.
The copyright of the article Top Sights in Lübeck, Germany in Germany Travel is owned by Henk Bekker. Permission to republish Top Sights in Lübeck, Germany in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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