8 Best Sights in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein and the Baltic Coast

Proof of Lübeck's former position as the golden queen of the Hanseatic League is found at every step in the Altstadt, which contains more 13th- to 15th-century buildings than all other large northern German cities combined. This fact has earned the Altstadt a place on UNESCO's register of the world's greatest cultural and natural treasures.

Construction of this, the city's oldest building, began in 1173. Its founder, Heinrich der Löwe himself, laid the foundation stone. The cathedral was initially built as a Romanesque brick building, which was completed in 1230, but starting in 1266 its reconstruction to a Gothic hall church began. The building, which was repeatedly altered, was severely damaged in an air raid in 1942. It was not until 1982 that the reconstruction was completed. The richly decorated church houses, among other things, a triumphal cross by the Lübeck artist Bernt Notke and the Renaissance pulpit, which is decorated with seven alabaster reliefs.

This museum is dedicated to the time of the Hanseatic League which is considered one of the most significant chapters in Northern German and European history. It exhibits dioramas, original artifacts, and interactive elements to convey a journey through 500 years of medieval trading.

This mansion contains a museum devoted to wide-ranging exhibits on literature and visual arts, prominently featuring the work of one of Germany's most famous postwar writers and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1999), Günter Grass (1927–2015).

Take a look inside the entrance hall of this Gothic building. It was built in the 13th century by the town's rich merchants and was one of the country's first hospitals. It still cares for the sick and elderly.

The impressive redbrick Gothic structure, which has the highest brick nave in the world, looms behind the Rathaus. Look for the old bells, as they are still in the spot where they fell during the bombing of Lübeck.

Dating from 1240, the Rathaus is among the buildings lining the arcaded Marktplatz, one of Europe's most striking medieval market squares.