Market Square & Town Hall (Markt / Rathaus)
Schwerin's beating heart since the twelfth century, a snug cobbled square where a Tudor-fronted town hall, a snow-white colonnade, and a wickedly satirical lion all crowd together beneath the cathedral's shadow. This is where the city was born, burned, and rebuilt again and again.
Su questo luogo
The Altstädtischer Markt is the oldest public space in Schwerin, laid out when Henry the Lion founded the city in 1160 and given its present rectangular shape after the great fire of 1651. For centuries this was the political, economic and religious core of the town, the one place where merchants were licensed to trade food and handmade goods. Three buildings frame the story here. On the east side stands the Rathaus, the town hall, which has occupied this exact spot since 1338 and burned to the ground three times before receiving its playful crenellated Tudor face in 1835. Opposite rises the snow-white Säulengebäude, a covered market hall from the 1780s whose fourteen Doric columns and deliberately low roofline were designed never to steal attention from the cathedral behind it. And in the middle prowls the Lion Monument, a modern and gleefully provocative tribute to the ruler who started it all.
Fatti principali
- 1338 year — The town hall has stood on this exact spot since 1338, rebuilt after three city fires
- 14 columns — Doric columns front the snow-white Säulengebäude, once a covered market hall
- 7 meters — The height of the satirical Lion Monument to city founder Henry the Lion
📍 Am Markt 14, 19055, Schwerin