Stralsund: "The most beautiful town in the world"

.... or so claims a recording in the Tourism Office.

Stralsund can certainly be counted among the most beautiful of towns: its silhouette - unchanged since medieval days - as seen from the nearby island of Ruegen is just breathtaking. And its old town is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Picking a favourite photo from a day spent in Stralsund has been an agonising, nay impossible task. So this photo is a compromise: one which provides a back door for me to touch on such arcane subjects as fur trading in far-off Novgorod and the symbolism of German wedding traditions. You have been warned!


Today's photo was taken from the far side of the Old Market Square. The brick building with six gables, just to right of centre, is the Town Hall; the massive towers and high roof immediately to its left belong to St Nicholas' Church. The close proximity of these two buildings is by no means accidental.


Stralsund's historical background

The town's name is odd to the German ear, it sounds Scandinavian.

The origin of the name is an old Slavic word for arrow, this was modified to Stralsund in 1240, shortly after the town was granted the privilege of town (i e self-governing) rights. At that time the town and a considerable section of the adjacent Baltic Coast were part of the Kingdom of Denmark; Stralsund itself had been colonised principally by Germans.

The arrow figures on the town's coat of arms.

Within a century of its foundation the town had become one of the most powerful members of the Hanseatic League. Now liberated from Denmark, Stralsund possessed a mighty merchant fleet. In 1370 the Treaty of Stralsund was signed in Stralsund's town hall: Denmark had waged war against the League, and lost. It ceded to the League a monopoly over the Baltic fishing trade, and a right of veto of candidates for the Danish crown.

This was the League's apogee. Its influence and power were to decline slowly with the waning of the middle ages. Stralsund belonged to Sweden from 1648 until 1807, in 1815 it became part of Prussia.


St Nicholas' Church and the traders' pews

A few yards separate this church from the Town Hall. The Town Council would use the church for proclaiming its ordinances and for receiving foreign dignatories. The merchants' guilds lavished money on the church furnishings, including pews for their members.

The wooden pews (1420) of the Guild of "Merchants Travelling to Riga" - i e those who specialised in trading in the Eastern Baltic and its hinterland - provide fascinating insights into the nature of the trade transacted there. In carved relief are painted scenes of Russians (with very long beards) and Hansa merchants (with much shorter beards).

Most of the Russians are in the woods, some are using bows and arrows to shoot down the squirrels (valuable for their furs) in the trees, others are chopping down trees with bees' nests. The nests are important for their valuable wax, used to caulk wooden casks; the honey in turn attracts imprudent bears, unaware of their importance in fur trade. Foxes, more canny, have retired to their lairs.

On the right of the panel are the merchants from Stralsund, waving bags of money and handing them to the hunters. These transactions take place in the town of Novgorod.

This panel alone justifies a trip to Stralsund. But there is more to enjoy, for instance this:

On the door to the pews (1574) of the Grocer's Guild is a carved wooden "bouncer" armed with a club, and below him the warning: "If you are not a grocer, stay outside or I will smash your face in." Unambiguous, whether or not you can read.


The Town Hall and a wedding

Descriptions of the Town Hall are replete with superlatives. You have already suffered from enough of those.

Look at the strange holes towards the top of its facade. These are not accidental, their job is to let the Baltic winds through and to protect the "freestanding" gables from the risk of collapse.

A young couple who had just been married in the register office attracted our attention. They were smartly dressed, neither in white, the smartness at a level appropriate for a posh night at the opera.

The couple came out of the Town Hall to the applause of a small, informal group of family and friends. The couple then took part in a sequence of (presumably just German) wedding traditions, all of which I have managed to track down on the internet. The precise symbolism of some of the traditions is disputed - interpretation may well vary from region to region - so I have selected as best I could :

Marriage saw. On a sawbench is a length of wood, which the bride and groom together have to cut with a two-handled saw.
Symbolism: the couple's togetherness in life.

A large red heart painted on a bedsheet. The couple have to cut out the heart, the groom then carries the bride through the resulting hole.
Symbolism: the couple's ability to cope with obstacles and difficulties ahead.

Eating bread and salt. Symbolism: bread for vital energy, salt for protection and renewal.

Baby clothes. A row of baby clothes is pegged to a washing line held at either end by wedding guests. The groom carries a wicker basket; he unpegs the clothes and puts them into the basket, assisted by his bride.
Symbolism: fertility.

Balloons. Helium balloons are released into the air. Attached to each balloon is a card with the couple's address and an attached postage stamp. People finding a balloon are to post the card back to the couple, who will thus receive a succession of happy reminders of their wedding day.


(If anyone can supply further information, please leave a comment below.)