Trip to an old city : Lübeck – Part three

Tags

Germany, Lübeck, medieval, travel

On the way back to  Lübeck from the beach, we pass by here and it caught our eyes 😛  The people own this really have some sense of humor 🙂

At one time the town could only be entered via any of four town gates, of which today two remain, the well-known Holstentor  (1478) and the Burgtor (1444).

And we entered from Burgtor gate. Much of the old town has kept a medieval appearance with old buildings and narrow streets. We finally find a parking spot and start to explore the city.

Lübecker Jakobikirche, 1334

First we pass by a big church, at first I thought this is the St. Mary’s church, but it is Church of St. Jacob instead.

The view of Church of St. Jacob from the square . It opens at 10, and we were there too early, so we didn’t check inside.

Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (Hospital of the Holy Spirit)

On the other side of square is the “Hospital of the Holy Spirit”, one of the oldest social institutions of Lübeck (1260). Since it is under maintenance, we didn’t go inside, which the famous traditional handicrafts market of Christmas is taken place every year.

And opposite the Church of St. Jacob stands a typical Brick Gothic style building. Seems like a fisherman’s club in the old times. 

Life must be tough for the fisherman.

Since here it says “No matter what you do, people always hate you!” Not quite sure what it is about, but definately not a very cheerful thoughts.

But looks like they were not poor 😛

Narrow street with the arched wall

Even the switch box is painted so beautiful 😛

The pedestrian street leads to the city hall

Lübecker Rathaus(Town Hall)

The first time to see a building with this unique style. 

The basic color is black and gold.

The town hall opens to tourist three in the afternoon and again we were way too early here, so just had a short rest and went to the next amazing spot.

St. Mary’s Church

About 1200 A.D. The magistrate and merchants of Lübeck launched an ambitious project: right in the center of the city, they started building a church for the citizens. This Romanesque basilica was built of brick just like its successor. From 1251 onwards, the church was turned into a Gothic cathedral.

The original plan was to erect a church with a nave and aisles of equal height, but finally a decision was made in favor of a basilica in high Gothic style of truly enormous dimensions. The vault spans the impressive nave at a height of 38.5 meters, and the twin spires are 125 meters high. This ” Mother of Gothic brick churches” set the pattern for about seventy churches in the Baltic region.

The Fredenhagen Altar

14 broken crosses by Günther Uecher.

But unfortunately , Lübeck couldn’t get away from the destruction of World War Two. At the matter of fact, Lübeck is the first city got bombed in the war. The church was heavily damaged and the reconstruction starting in 1947.

The original Gothic paintings, which had been painted over in Baroque times, were restored, and objects lost in the fire were replaced.

As we walk by this, I was like: is this the so called biggest organ?

 “Große Orgel” (Grand Organ)1516–1518

Until I see this one. It got several stairs and just huge. I don’t know the music they played in the church is from this or they just put a CD player there. But the music sounds very powerful, even though there is no sermons going on.

Astronomic Clock

Unlucky, It was under maintenance. Only showed a picture there but the whole clock looks so complicated and sophisticated.

But the Stained Glass here looks scary, maybe because it is in the Totentanzkapelle (Death dance chapel).

It is sitting outside of the St Mary’s church, called the “Devil’s Figure on the Devil’s stone”

Here is the explanation of the story. 

Come out from the St. Mary’s Church, we decided to go to another church- Lübeck Dom (the city’s cathedral).

The street is extreme narrow here 😛

Some nice Halloween stuff 😛

Lübeck Dom (the city’s cathedral)

Knowing Lübeck is the city of Henry the lion, and I was surprised to see there is no sign of his signature, until I see the Lübeck Dom.

Because when you walk to the cathedral, you see this lion right there, in front of the dom. I am still fascinating with the story of Henry, the most powerful Duke in his time, own the Bavaria and Saxony. But he refused to help his cousin, the king Friedrich Barbarossa to fight the Rome, and after the king defeated, he deprived him of his duchies. 

But the other side of the story is like Henry showed too much of his power and also his ambition to be the king. He married the daughter of the England Emperor and in the year 1173, he start to build this cathedral. He ordered to make this fantastic Bible and paint himself and his wife get the crown from God, shows his ambition to be the king. Quite a character.

The cathedral also been bombed during the second world war. Reconstruction of the cathedral took several decades, was completed only in 1982.

The lion inside the cathedral

Very original old buildings along the banks of the Trave River

We finish our trip with the most iconic spot of Lübeck- The Holstentor

This Brick Gothic style gate is regarded today as a symbol of this German city, and together with the old city centre of Lübeck it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site  since 1987.

My husband is glad that I pick out this city to visit. I also like the decision to go there. With all the culture and medieval buildings we had quite a tour 🙂