St. Nicholas' Church, Gothic church in Stralsund, Germany.
St. Nicholas' Church is a Brick Gothic church on the Old Market in Stralsund. Its red-brick nave, 87 metres long and 29 metres high, is flanked by lower side aisles and buttresses, with a steep copper roof. A square tower with a green copper dome and slender spire rises on the left; the south tower reaches 102.6 metres to the weather vane.
Construction started in 1234, after Stralsund received its city rights, as a hall church with a tower; it was first documented in 1276 and dedicated to Saint Nicholas in 1279. After 1270 the unfinished building was rebuilt as a basilica modelled on St. Mary's Church in Lübeck, and the west tower followed from 1300. A fire in 1662 destroyed the wooden spires, and the south tower received its Baroque dome in 1667.
The church was conceived as Stralsund's council church, so besides worship it hosted council meetings, received ambassadors, proclaimed laws and kept the city archives. Its 56 altars, mostly owned by guilds and families, were largely removed in the Bildersturm of 1525. A golden frieze of 50 councillors' coats of arms, from the 16th and 17th centuries, runs along the upper nave.
The main west entrance is reached from the town hall through the Buttergang passage; a north access from the Old Market was reopened in 2003. The nave is 29 m high and the aisles half that, so the interior reads as a tall central space flanked by lower corridors. Scaffolding stands along both sides of the nave.
The south tower reaches 102.60 metres to the weathercock, of which 58.07 metres are brickwork; the two towers were originally equal in height. Inside the towers a treadwheel used for hoisting building material survives. A fire in 1662 destroyed the wooden spires, after which the south tower received its Baroque dome while the north tower was closed with a temporary roof.
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