The Salzspeicher (salt storehouses), of

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, are six historic brick buildings on the Upper

Trave The Trave () is a river in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is approximately long, running from its source near the village of Gießelrade in Ostholstein to Travemünde, where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It passes through Bad Segeberg, Bad Old ...

River next to the

Holstentor The Holsten Gate (Low German and German: ''Holstentor'') is a city gate marking off the western boundary of the old center of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. Built in 1464, the Brick Gothic construction is one of the relics of Lübeck's medieval ci ...

(the western city gate). Built in the 16th–18th centuries, the houses stored salt that was mined near

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

and brought to Lübeck over the

Stecknitz Canal The Stecknitz Canal () was an artificial waterway in northern Germany which connected Lauenburg and Lübeck on the Old Salt Route by linking the tiny rivers Stecknitz (a tributary of the Trave) and Delvenau (a tributary of the Elbe), thus es ...

. The salt was then shipped to several ports in the

Baltic region The Baltic Sea Region, alternatively the Baltic Rim countries (or simply the Baltic Rim), and the Baltic Sea countries/states, refers to the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, including parts of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. Un ...

, where the commodity was relatively rare, but was in high demand for the preservation of food. The salt trade from the late Middle Ages onward was a major reason for the power of Lübeck and the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

. In the course of the centuries, the houses were adapted for the storage of different goods, such as cloth, grain and wood. Part of the complex was used as the residence of Count Orlok in the classic horror movie '' Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens''Loy Arnold, Michael Farin, Hans Schmid: Nosferatu. Eine Symphonie des Grauens. München 2000 (Filmhandbuch mit zahlreichen Zusatzinformationen u. Szenenbildern) as well as the remake ''

Nosferatu the Vampyre ''Nosferatu the Vampyre'' () is a 1979 gothic horror film directed and written by Werner Herzog. The film serves as both a remake of the 1922 film ''Nosferatu'' and an adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel ''Dracula''. Herzog’s film is set i ...

''.

References

Buildings and structures in Lübeck Port of Lübeck {{SchleswigHolstein-struct-stub