The best-preserved of Wismar's three great medieval churches and the one that gives the clearest sense of what all three must once have looked like. Nikolaikirche is a hall church — nave and aisles rise to nearly the same height — which creates an interior of unusual luminosity for a Gothic brick building. The columns are slender for their height, the vaults soar, and the overall effect is of dignified power rather than ornamental excess. Construction began in the fourteenth century and continued into the fifteenth.
The church contains a number of significant furnishings that survived the upheavals of the twentieth century in unusually good condition, including medieval altarpieces, a carved pulpit, and a late Gothic triumphal cross. It is an active Lutheran church and is open to visitors during daylight hours. The exterior, particularly viewed from the north across the surrounding streets, is an excellent example of the Brick Gothic style that defines this part of the Baltic coast.