Stralsund Old Town

Stralsund sits on an island of its own, cut off by ponds and the sound, which is why the medieval street plan survived intact enough to be listed together with Wismar along the coast. Everything here is brick, because this landscape offers no building stone, and Hanseatic merchants turned that limitation into a style: gables stepped and pierced with blind tracery, churches the height of cathedrals, and a town hall whose show facade is a free standing screen with open sky behind its windows. The tower of St Mary's can be climbed for the whole layout at once, the harbour, and the long bridge running out towards Rugen.

What you actually see

• The town hall show facade - a brick screen with open windows and nothing behind it but sky.
• St Mary's tower - a climb to a platform over the roofs, the harbour and the sound.
• St Nicholas - the oldest of the three great churches, with an astronomical clock and painted stalls.
• The harbour front - warehouses, a museum sailing ship and the water that closes the old town in.

When to go

May to September for reliable boat connections and for climbing weather up the church tower. Baltic summers stay cool and windy even in July, so a jacket is normal. Winter shortens opening hours across the town. Weekends bring traffic heading for Rugen, which clogs the causeway rather than the old town itself.

Honest expectations

Brick Gothic is austere and repetitive, and after two churches many visitors have had enough. Restoration is incomplete in places and some blocks look tired. Wind off the sound is constant and can be punishing on the harbour front. Prices around the water rise steeply in season for what is on offer.

Nearby

The chalk coast and seaside resorts of Rugen, the Hanseatic town of Greifswald, and the Darss peninsula.