Wismar's Marktplatz is one of the largest market squares in northern Germany, measuring roughly 100 by 100 metres, and its condition is exceptional. The square is ringed with gabled merchant houses dating from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, many of them in the distinctive red brick of the Hanseatic north, and restored to a state that communicates what the city's mercantile wealth once looked like. The Wasserkunst fountain at the centre is the focal point — a finely detailed Renaissance structure that looks more like a baldachin from a baroque church than a piece of civic plumbing.
The square is still fully functional as public space: a weekly market, outdoor cafes in summer, and a Christmas market in December. The south side is dominated by the Fürstenhof, the former ducal palace with its ornate Italian Renaissance facade, and the east side by the red-brick bulk of the Alter Schwede, the oldest surviving building on the square. Arriving here from one of the narrow approach streets still carries some of the impact it must have had for a medieval traveller approaching the city for the first time.