Cathedral St Nicholas

Location and history

Sited in the old town centre of Greifswald, the mighty structure of the Nikolaikirche with its lofty pyramidal roof tower looms over the surrounding cityscape far and wide making it the symbol of the town. As in many north German towns, the Gothic brick church bears the name of the holy Nikolaus von Myra (circa 285 – circa 350), who was very popular as the patron saint of seaman and merchants in the Middle Ages.

Like the other two parish churches St. Marien and St. Jacobi, the development of St. Nikolai is closely associated with the growth of Greifswald in the Medieval period. Work on the construction of the settlement originally known as Grypheswald on high ground to the south of the Ryck river began in about 1230. It was mentioned in documents for the first time in 1248. Its owes its existence to the Cistercian monastery Eldena situated 5 km to the East. In 1249 the Abbot of Eldena invested the Pomeranian duke Wartislaw III on the condition that the monastery should retain the patronage rights of all existing (but not however actually named) churches and those churches yet to be founded. The expansion of the town began in 1250 with the conferment of the Lüben civic charter. And the grid-like outline foundations one town land on which the subsequent church buildings were to be divided after 1264 at the latest by which time the town itself had merged with the new town which had sprung up in the meantime.

Medieval construction