Founded in 1234, the hanseatic city of Stralsund is with good reasons one of the most beautiful towns in Northern Germany. Especially the historical city centre, which features hundreds of listed buildings, is famous for its well-preserved gothic brick architecture. The three monumental parish churches, St Marys´, St Jacobs´ and St Nicholas’ are shaping significantly the silhouette of Stralsund and compose its unique profile of sacral architecture. As a matter of fact, the historical city centres´ medieval ground plan has been preserved and remains almost unaltered. It represents the ideal type of a developed Hanseatic town during the heyday of the trading alliance of the 14th century.

The still existing historical building stock with numerous outstanding single monuments documents vividly the former political significance and the extraordinary wealth of the medieval cities around the Baltic Sea.
Its island position between the Strelasund and several ponds dammed up in the 13^th century emphasize the closed medieval citycentre. Considering political and economic concerns, Stralsund was next to Lübeck the most important town of the Baltic area. This might have been a decisive reason why it became the designated place for the peace negotiations between the Hanseatic League and Denmark in 1370 (Peace of Stralsund).

The monuments, such as various merchants' houses or the town hall, have been constructed in a sumptuous way. They represent the typical architecture of the Hanseatic era. In 1628 Albrecht von Wallenstein failed to besiege the fortress, because Swedish and Danish troops supported the inhabitants of the city. In the 17th and 18th century, Stralsund was under Swedish rule, just like entire Western Pomerania. Some outstanding baroque buildings like the Swedish Government Palace have been established during this period.

On the 26th meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee,  on June 27th, 2002 in Budapest, the historic towns of Stralsund and Wismar were nominated a World Heritage Site. Especially the well-preserved structures of the monuments were of great importance for the acceptance by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.