The town takes great pride in its historic four-masted sailing ship-turned-museum, Passat, which used to do the run around South America's Cape Horn in the early to mid-20th century. A regular passenger ferry (€1) crosses the river to the ship.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Europäisches Hansemuseum

9.73 MILES

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…

2. Heiligen-Geist-Hospital

9.84 MILES

The former Heiligen-Geist-Hospital has an elegant old entryway and a few resonances of Germany's first hospital (dating back to 1227). Through an early…

3. Glandorps Gang

9.87 MILES

The Glandorps Gang is one of Lübeck's most stunning centuries-old gänge (walkways).

4. Füchtingshof

9.89 MILES

Among Lübeck's famous Höfe (courtyards), this is one of the most beautiful, although it's not always open.

5. Günter Grass-Haus

9.91 MILES

Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk), Poland, Günter Grass had been living just outside Lübeck for 13 years when he collected his Nobel Prize in 1999. But this…

6. Willy Brandt House

9.92 MILES

Besides Gunther Grass, Lübeck's other big Nobel Prize winner was chancellor of West Germany (1969–74) and was honoured for his efforts to reconcile with…

7. Katharinenkirche

9.95 MILES

Art lovers will enjoy the Katharinenkirche for its sculptures by Ernst Barlach and Gerhard Marcks, plus The Resurrection of Lazarus by Tintoretto. It has…

8. Buddenbrookhaus

10.11 MILES

Thomas Mann, winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Lübeck in 1875, and his family’s former home is now the Buddenbrookhaus. Named…