THE CATHEDRAL OF LÜBECK AND ITS DOUBLE

As important centre of the Hanseatic League, Lübeck is the first western city on the Baltic Sea, whose historic centre is protected by Unesco. In historical iconography, its handed-down urban image is characterised by the emergence of seven churches – including the oldest, the Cathedral. Founded in 1173 as a Romanesque basilica, Lübeck Cathedral was later transformed, with a nave and two aisles of the same height, becoming one of Northern Germany's Gothic masterpieces. Partly destroyed by war, and then rebuilt until the 1980s, it is now one of the three Episcopal cathedrals of the Evangelical Church north of the River Elbe. The typical façade with double bell tower, is almost identical in the nearby Marienkirche – another city's icon – which emerges almost as a replicate inside the urban skyline. Compared to the marginal position of the cathedral, isolated in a large green area on the southern edge of the city, this second church is located in the historic centre, near the Marktplatz – with its Romanesque town hall. Surrounded by the dense fabric of medieval blocks, including the Gründungsviertel, which is currently being rebuilt according to the old parcellarium, it emerges for its monumental size. The relationship between Marienkirche and the compact fabric of urban blocks, is portrayed in one of Karl Gruber's famous bird's-eye views drawn up during post-war reconstruction to illustrate the typical characters of German cities. In addition to the morphological difference between the two churches, the similarity in typology leads them to the Basilica type with double bell towers on the main façade. This type differs from that of the Hallenkirche, which can be found in several other Hanseatic cities on the Baltic Sea. These include the parish churches of the same name in the neighbouring towns of Stralsund and Wismar or, in a lesser form, the heavily reused St. Nicholas Church in Rostock.