Top Rated Tourist Attractions in Flensburg & Sylt

Flensburg

Tel: 0461-909 09 20

The most northerly town in Germany, Flensburg was an important trading centre in the 16th century with 200 ships, although at times it belonged to Denmark. The Nordertor (northern gate), dating from 1595, is an emblem of the city.

The shipping museum is fascinating while the Marienkirche has a Renaissance altar, sculptures and the painting The Last Supper (1598). Nearby is the Heilig-Geist-Kirche (church of the Holy Ghost), which has belonged to the town’s Danish community since 1588. Other interesting churches are Nikolaikirche which boasts a magnificent Renaissance organ, and Johanniskirche with a vaulted ceiling dating from around 1500. Its painted scenes show people disguised as animals, which was a covert way of criticizing the church and the system of indulgences.

Environs

Schloss Glücksburg, 9 km (6 miles) northeast of Flensburg, a square castle with massive corner towers on a granite base, was built from 1582–7.

Visit its captivating castle chapel, the Roter Saal (red hall) with its low vaulting, and the valuable collection of 18thcentury tapestries from Brussels. The artist Emil Nolde lived and worked in Seebüll, west of Flensburg, from the age of 20 until his death in 1956.

Sylt

The island of Sylt, the largest of the North Frisian islands, has long attracted wealthy German visitors. The 50-km (31-mile) long island offers a rich variety of landscapes: white, sandy beaches, shifting sand dunes near List, towering up to 25 m (82ft) high, steep shorelines, the Rotes Kliff (red cliff) near Kampen and the Watt, the endless expanse of mudflats in the national park, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer.

Westerland is Sylt’s main town, and its promenade, Friedrichstrabe, is “the” place to be seen.

There is also an interesting casino in a former Secessionist spa building.