Lübeck Cathedral

It was Henry the Lion who laid the foundations to the cathedral on the Southern edge of the Old Town at Mühlenteich. After the city had became a bishop's see in 1160, he launched the construction of the mighty Gothic, three-naved brick building in 1173. A wooden church had previously stood on the same spot. The cathedral completely burned down and the vaults collapsed during the air raids on Lübeck in 1942. Work on restoring the church only began in 1960 after St. Mary’s had been rebuilt. It was newly consecrated in 1973. The crowning glory of the rebuilding efforts came with the restoration of the Paradise vestibule in 1982. Lübeck Cathedral houses numerous works of art such as the 17-metre Triumphal Cross by Bernt Notke (1477), the pulpit and the imposing Lettner clock. All that remains of the former monastery is the cloister in the South transept (to the cathedral museum).