Tom`s travels: Greifswald & Stralsund (14/10/2018)

Another weekend meant another day trip from Hamburg. Traveling again through Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, we decided to head further east and reach the town of Greifswald, once part of the Hanseatic League and now a popular university city. After reaching the train station we headed on foot through the old town and reached the Fischmarkt, a small square sided by nice buildings. At its eastern end is the town hall, originally built in the 13th century, its present form dates to a Baroque reconstruction and is characterized by a bright red color. The building marks a sort of division between the Fischmarkt and the larger Marktplatz, the city's main square. All around it some nice mix of gabled burgher houses mostly from the Baroque and Neoclassical periods with also a Gothic one at the eastern end. Not far on we then visited the church of St Mary, located at the eastern end of the old town. Built around the 13th century it was then refurbished the following century in its present brick Gothic form. We entered the building and admired the large and airy, albeit lacking in decorations, interior. As we then headed back through the main square we reached the town's main church, St Nikolai. Dating to the 13th century it presents the typical brick Gothic style with the bell tower having been rebuilt during the 17th century after the original one collapsed. The whitewashed interior presents very little of the original furnishings but is nonetheless worth a visit. Continuing further, we then passed by the university's main building, a nice palace dating to 1750. The university itself though is much older, having been founded in 1456 and thus making it the fourth oldest in Germany. Not far ahead we passed by the church of St Jacob, which was unfortunately closed for renovation, and reached the train station once more from where we took our transportation to the next city: Stralsund. Another Hanseatic town, this city, together with Wismar which I had seen in 2017, is part of the Unesco list due to their old towns rich in heritage. We immediately noticed that as we exited the train station, and crossing a bridge reached the nice historical center surrounded by water. Our first stop was the church of St Mary, built during the 13th century in brick Gothic. Its tower, which was rebuilt several times during history, the last of which in 1708 in the Baroque form, was the tallest in the world between 1549 and 1647 at 151m. The interior presented a nice mix of Gothic structure with Baroque decorations including a large organ. We continued through the streets and reached another church, St Jacob's. Built during the 14th century it features a large thick tower and a long central nave. As we entered we found out that despite being used as an art exhibition space it still featured some decorations such as the pulpit and main altar. Moving forward we passed by some nice streets with gabled burgher houses and then reached the city's main monument: the church of St Nicholas. The oldest church in the city, it was built during the 13th century and features a large brick gothic structure with two bell towers originally built during the 14th century. One of the towers received a new spire in the Baroque form during the 17th century after the previous one collapsed together with the other one which was never rebuilt. The main portal, featuring a beautiful renaissance door with decorations, was closed but the entrance to the church took place from the southern side portal. Once inside we marveled at the impressive structure which featured Baroque altars and fitting which replaced the mostly empty interior after the original gothic furnishings were removed during the 1515 iconoclastic fury of the Reformation called Bildersturm. Particularly noteworthy were the altars with nice decorations including the main altar with a well-made crucifix. On the southern side of the altar are some remaining wooden reliefs which used to cover the whole perimeter. The four reliefs dating to 1420 represent some Russian/baltic traders with long beards and wearing hunts in the act of chopping wood, hunting wild animals, and then trading with Stralsund merchants. Once outside the church, we sat down on a bench in the middle of the Alter Markt, the town's main square. Here we had the lunch which we had brought with us and admired the beautiful buildings surrounding the square focusing on the southern side which was covered by the impressive structure of the church and of the north german brick gothic city hall with a beautifully decorated facade built around the 13th century. As we continued on we walked past the Kniepetor, one of the few remaining city gates, and then entered a small courtyard featuring beautiful timber-framed houses. Right next to it were the ruins of St John's monastery, built during the 13th century and left into ruins after it was destroyed once in the 17th century and again during WWII. Walking further we then reached the eastern end of the old town where the modern Ozeaneum building is located. A public aquarium, it is part of the German Oceanographic Museum, the most visited museum in northern Germany. We decided to skip it and head further until we reached the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, a religious complex built during the 17th century which served as recovery and accommodation for the poor and ill. The complex featured a long row of buildings with timber frames and with a bright red color. Finally, we decided to head back through the old town and reach the train station from where we took a train back to Hamburg.