Wismar Old Town

About this place

Wismar Old Town is the heart of the Hanseatic city of Wismar on the Bay of Wismar on the Baltic Sea, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, northeast Germany, about 29 km north of Schwerin and 51 km east of Lübeck in a straight line. The city has about 43,000 residents. The city was founded around 1226 and joined the Hanseatic League trading alliance in 1259. It is a typical Hanseatic city, with Brick Gothic buildings and stepped-gabled merchants' houses, and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the old town of Stralsund in 2002. At the centre is a wide market square, one of the largest in northern Germany, lined with colourful stepped-gabled houses. Cobbled lanes branch off between red-brick and half-timbered houses, and the brick Gothic Water Gate stands by the old harbour. Visitors wander the market square and old lanes down to the harbour and eat fresh fish from the boats at the quay. Some climb a church tower for a view over the red roofs and the bay, and the city makes a good day trip from Schwerin or Lübeck.