Lübeck Cathedral

Romanesque cathedral with Bernt Notke's monumental crucifix

The Dom zu Lübeck sits at the southern tip of the Altstadt, anchoring the island as the city's oldest major building — founded in 1173 by Henry the Lion. It is Romanesque in plan and brick in fabric, an older sibling to the brick Gothic that followed it elsewhere in the city.

The 1942 raid wrecked the choir; the rebuilt interior preserves the older work that survived, including Bernt Notke's monumental Triumphkreuz (1477) hanging over the choir steps. The medieval cloister on the south side is a quiet spot. The whole cathedral complex is at the quietest end of the Altstadt, twenty minutes' walk from the centre.

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The Triumphkreuz, the great cross-and-figures group that hangs in the choir, was carved in 1477 by Bernt Notke — the foremost late-medieval sculptor of northern Germany. Christ's body is 7.5 metres tall and the entire ensemble fills the height of the nave. It is one of the masterpieces of Hanseatic art.

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