Lüneburg's main market square is lined with gabled brick houses built by the salt merchants who made the city rich. The square is dominated at its eastern end by the Johanniskirche, a massive Gothic brick church whose tower leans noticeably — the result of subsidence from centuries of salt extraction beneath the city. The weekly market still fills the square on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Am Sande
Salt-merchant square with a famously leaning church tower
A story
The square's unusual shape — long, narrow, and slightly curved — follows the outline of what was once a sandy common outside the medieval town walls. The name simply means 'at the sand.'