The medieval layout, being arranged like a chessboard, as well as the picturesque narrow streets were completely preserved. The cathedral St. Nikolai, and the churches St. Marien and St Jacobi and the tower above them are visible from almost every part of the city. Long Nicholas, fat Mary and little James, as the churches are lovingly called by the Greifswald residents, remind of the medieval town's former time of prosperity. Together with the gable houses of brick at the east side of the market they are Greifswald's contribution to the fascinating world of the brick gothic, the European route of which leads from the Danish Arhus up to the Estonian Tartu.
200 years ago, the old part's skyline already fascinated the most popular Greifswald resident, Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). His romantic paintings have made him, but also his native town, famous far beyond the limits of Germany. A visit in the adjoining soap making workshop of his father Friedrich, with authentic rooms from the time of king Frederick the Great, as well as in the picture gallery of the Pomeranian Regional Museum, are only two of the many opportunities to follow in the painter´s tracks.
