Walk into the Marienkirche in Lubeck and your neck tips back without any instruction. The nave rises to a brick vault nearly forty metres above the floor, among the highest brick vaults in the world, and the whole church is a statement from the merchants who paid for it, built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as the main church of a city that considered itself the equal of any bishop. It became the model for brick Gothic churches all round the Baltic, from Stralsund to Tallinn.
The church was hit in the air raid of 28 March 1942 and burned, and the great bells fell from the tower and smashed on the stone floor. They have been left where they landed, a heap of twisted bronze, as a memorial, and it is one of the most powerful sights in Germany. The church itself was rebuilt, with its tall white interior, restored vaults and, high in the north transept, a medieval astronomical clock that shows the date and the phases of the moon.
Music runs deep here. Dieterich Buxtehude was organist at the Marienkirche from 1668 until 1707, and held famous evening concerts, and in 1705 the young Johann Sebastian Bach is said to have walked here from Arnstadt, more than four hundred kilometres, to hear him play. He stayed for months, far longer than his leave allowed, and the story gives the church a special place in the history of baroque music. Organ concerts are still held in the church.
The location is the town hall square, with the market, the old town hall and the stepped gables of merchants' houses, and it is a pleasant place to sit with a coffee. Marzipan shops are close by. Parking is difficult in the centre, so leave your bike at the edge and walk. Fuel and services are available elsewhere in the city. Come on a weekday in spring or autumn, when it is quieter, and take a few moments to sit under the vault and look up.