Top Attractions In Holsteinische Schweiz & Ratzeburg

Holsteinische Schweiz (Holstein’s Switzerland)

Tel: (0800 20 20 080).

Events: Jazz-Festival in Plon (May); open-air opera during Sommerspiele in Eutin.

The morain hills, which reach a height of 164 m (538 ft), and 140 lakes are the reasons why this area is known as Holstein’s Switzerland. The best means of transport here is the bicycle, allowing visitors to appreciate the beauty of nature and the wealth of the fauna – ornithologists have counted 200 species of birds.

The main centre of this holiday area is Plon on the Grober Ploner See (large Plon lake). Nearby is Preetz, an old shoemakers’ town, which has a towerless Gothic church that belonged to a former Benedictine monastery.

Older still is the Romanesque church in Bosau, a small town in a picturesque location on the Grober Ploner See. It was the first bishopric in this area, and home to Vizelin – the apostle of the Slavs.

It is also worth visiting Eutin, a small town full of picturesque buildings, which is sometimes referred to as the “Weimar of the north”.

The original Schloss, a brick structure with four wings, was built in the Middle Ages as the residence of the Lubeck bishops, but it was substantially altered in the years 1716–27. Worth seeing inside are the palace chapel, the Blauer Salon (blue salon) with Rococo stucco work, as well as paintings by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, which were inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey, epic poems written by Homer.

Ratzeburg

Tel: (04541-80 00 886)

Ratzeburg, situated on an island in the Grober Ratzeburger See, is linked with the mainland by three causeways.

The town was named after Ratibor, the duke of the Elbe River area. Henry the Lion established a missionary bishopric here in 1154, and later it became the residence of the Lauenburg dukes.

The Dom (cathedral) is one of the earliest examples of brick architecture, a style that was imported from Lombardy.

The southern vestibule of the Romanesque basilica is particularly impressive – with herringbone-pattern brickwork and lines of black tiles as interior decoration. The Romanesque stalls, a 13thcentury crucifix in a rainbow arch, the ducal gallery above the nave and the Baroque altar in the southern transept are some of its treasures.