The Salzspeicher are six brick warehouses standing in a line along the bank of the Trave just upstream of the Holstentor. They were built between 1579 and 1745 to store the salt that arrived by barge from Lüneburg via the Stecknitz Canal — the salt was Lübeck's most important export, traded onward to Scandinavia where it was used to preserve herring.
The warehouses are no longer used commercially but the city has restored them carefully — they are one of the most photographed groupings in the Altstadt. They look especially fine across the river from the Holstentor side at sunset, when the red brick glows.