Medieval Lübeck

Lübeck was founded in 1143 by Count Adolf II of Holstein on an island between the Trave and the Wakenitz, refounded in 1159 by Henry the Lion after a fire, and made a free imperial city by Frederick II in 1226. As the leading city of the Hanseatic League from the 14th century — the Hansetag, the league’s assembly, met here — it was the richest and most powerful town on the Baltic, and its town law, the Lübisches Recht, was adopted by around a hundred towns along the coast. The old town island, with about a thousand listed buildings, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

Its landmarks are the great works of Brick Gothic. St Mary’s (Marienkirche, 1250–1350), built by the merchant council as a counterweight to the bishop’s cathedral, has the tallest brick vault in the world and was the model for some seventy churches around the Baltic; the Marienkirchhof on its north side, where the historical Christmas market stands, lies between the church and the 13th–15th-century Rathaus on the Markt. The Holstentor (1464–78) is the surviving western gate, the Burgtor (1444) the northern; the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (1286) is one of the oldest social institutions in Europe still in its medieval building; the cathedral was begun in 1173. The Europäisches Hansemuseum (2015) at the northern tip of the island tells the league’s story. Lübeck is 45 minutes from Hamburg by train, and the old town is a ten-minute walk from the station through the Holstentor.