Luebeck (population around 210,000) is a town located in NE tip of Schleswig-Holstein, one of the German lands located at the border with Denmark. Its history is bound closely with the sea and Hansa, a German union of ports, which controlled the Baltic sea trade between 13th and 17th century. Although the town is not straight at the seashore, it is connected with Baltic sea by the mean of left-bank Elbe river channel and the Trave river.

For people like me, who live more than 600 km from the next sea coast in Central Europe in Slovakia, this kind of towns is the most interesting in Germany. Although nice, the other towns you can find in Germany are not so „exotic“ as the hanseatic towns. Here, everything is related with the sea: architecture, history and perhaps also the every-day life. Therefore, I would like to share some pics from my stay there, which took about 3 or 4 hours. I stopped to take a break there when I was driving to Scandinavia for my holidays in July 2004. I can recommend it to anyone while driving around. I enjoyed the fish food there, which was really very tasty.

Among others, you can find the following objects in my pics:

1) Holstentor. Usually, this is the place you go around when you want enter the historic center. The gate was built in 15th century and it guarded the S entrance to the town.

2) Niederegger Marzipan-Salon. This is the nicest house in the biggest square in the old town.

3) St. Aegidius Church (Aegidienkirche), built in Gothic style, is the smallest church in the old town.

4) Cathedral. Its cornerstone was laid n 1173 and it was built in Roman style.

5) St. Mary’s Church (Marienkirche), built in 13th or 14th century in Gothic style.

6) Salzpeicher. This was a salt store, consisting of 6 brick buildings, built between 1579 and 1745.

7) St. Peter’s Church (Petrikirche) was built in Gothic style between 1220 and 1240. It was enlarged in 15th and 16th centuries and rebuilt several times in 20th century. Its tower is over 108 m high. The views in my pics were taken from a platform over 50 m high right in this church. Main church ship clearance is nearly 18 m. The church overall length is 59 m and the width is 40 m.

So, enjoy the pics.