Must-see attractions in Northern Germany

Gothic and Renaissance turrets, Slavic onion domes, Ottoman features and terracotta Hanseatic step gables are among the mishmash of architectural styles…

St Nikolai church was the world’s tallest building from 1874 to 1876, and it remains Hamburg’s second-tallest structure (after the TV tower). Mostly…

Here's the perfect excuse to stay up all Saturday night. Every Sunday in the wee hours, some 70,000 locals and visitors descend upon the famous Fischmarkt…

Central Rostock’s pride and joy is the 13th-century Marienkirche, the only main Rostock church to survive WWII unscathed (although restorations are…

Welcome to one of the most Europe's most exciting recent architectural creations. A squat brown-brick former warehouse at the far west of HafenCity was…

Built in 1464 and looking so settled-in that it appears to sag, Lübeck’s charming red-brick city gate is a national icon. Its twin pointed cylindrical…

A treasure trove of art from the Renaissance to the present day, the Kunsthalle spans two buildings linked by an underground passage. The main building…

This masterpiece of medieval architecture dates to 1270 and is modelled on Lübeck's Marienkirche. Its interior is awash with colour and is filled with art…

Opened in 2015, this brilliant museum tells the remarkable story of the Hanseatic League, Lübeck and the region. For 600 years, city states in northern…

This museum quarter includes an old synagogue, church and medieval buildings along its uneven streets. The namesake St Annen Museum details the diverse…

With its steeple towering above the Altstadt (old town), the Dom St Petri provides an excellent point of orientation. It’s also home to the intricate…

With its spectacular coffered ceiling, Hamburg’s baroque Rathaus is one of Europe’s most opulent, and is renowned for its Emperor’s Hall and Great Hall…

Revel in the Flemish masterpieces collected by the Mecklenburg dukes during the 17th and 18th centuries at this impressive museum with wide-ranging…

You'll need divine inspiration to guess the number of bricks used to build the massive 14th-century Marienkirche, a superb example of north German red…

In an arctic-white wave-like building that leaps out from the surrounding red-brick warehouses, the state-of-the-art Ozeaneum takes you into an underwater…

Such was the allure of this palace that when the ducal seat moved 36km north to Schwerin in 1837, some family members continued living here until 1945…

The medieval Rathaus has a spectacular baroque facade, added in 1720 and decorated with coats of arms and three tiers of statues. The top row represents …

Of the three great red-brick churches that once rose above the rooftops of Wismar before WWII, only the sober St-Nikolai-Kirche, the largest of its kind…

‘Der Michel’, as it is affectionately called, is one of Hamburg’s most recognisable landmarks and northern Germany’s largest Protestant baroque church…

Some of the prettiest Kaufmannshöfe (merchants' courtyards) can be found off the very picturesque Rote Strasse, which is up from the harbour by the…