The Strelasund or Strela Sound is a

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

which separates

Rügen Rügen (; Rani: ''Rȯjana'', ''Rāna''; , ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic ci ...

from the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

mainland. It is crossed by a bridge called the

Strelasund Crossing Strelasund Crossing is the two links to the German island of Rügen (''Rugia'') over the Strelasund to the West Pomeranian mainland near Stralsund: the Rügen Bridge or Rugia Bridge () and the Rugia Causeway (). Ferry services between Stralsun ...

from

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...

. It runs northwest to southeast from a small shallow bay just north of Stralsund called the

Kubitzer Bodden The Kubitzer Bodden is a type of lagoon known as a ''bodden'' on the Baltic Sea coast in the southwestern area of the island of Rügen in Germany. In the north the ''bodden'' is bounded by the ''Lieschow'' peninsula on Rügen. In the east and sout ...

through to another such bay, the Greifswalder Bodden in the southeast. The sound is nowhere much more than 3 km wide, reaching its greatest width towards its southeast end. It is roughly 25 km long. The only island of any size in the Strelasund is

Dänholm Dänholm (literally ''Danes' Isle'') is a small island on the German coast of the Baltic Sea. It is situated in the Strelasund just east of Stralsund. Both bridges linking Rügen with the mainland, Rügendamm and Rügenbrücke, run across it. ...

just off Stralsund, which carries part of the Rügendamm across the sound. On the Rügen side, the shore is in many places steep, although this is punctuated by lower shorelines with reed beds in some places. On the mainland side, however, the shores are overridingly flat. The Strelasund has been the site of two battles. The first in 1362 and the second in 1369 both pitted Danish king Valdemar IV against the

Hanseatic 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 ...

fleet. Differences between the two parties were settled by the Treaty of Stralsund in 1370.

References

External links

{{Authority control Stralsund Sounds of Europe Straits of the Baltic Sea Straits of Germany Geography of Rügen Lagoons of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania