Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about 45 km (28 mi) southeast of fellow Hanseatic city Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and one of Hamburg’s inner suburbs. Lüneburg has a population of around 72 000. The district of Lüneburg, which includes the surrounding communities like Adendorf, Bardowick, and Reppenstedt, has a population of around 103 000. Lüneburg has been allowed to use the title “Hansestadt” (Hanseatic Town) in its name since 2007, in recognition of its membership in the former Hanseatic League; it is also a university town. As of December 2007, the town was the 120th largest in Germany.
To the south of the town stretches the 7,400 km² Lüneburg Heath which emerged as a result of widespread tree-felling, forest fires and grazing. The tradition that the heath arose from centuries of logging undertaken to meet the constant need of the Lüneburg salt works for wood is not historically confirmed. More likely, the heath was originally formed by clearances during the Bronze Age. The old town (Altstadt) of Lüneburg lies above a salt dome which is the town’s original source of prosperity. Lüneburg is also a popular tourist destination within Germany because of the Lüneburg Heath.
Lüneburg is one of the few towns in North Germany whose historic centre was not destroyed during the Second World War. Nevertheless the general neglect of its buildings until the 1960s and the damage in the area of subsidence has led to gaps in the historic architecture of the town. In addition the demolition of ramshackle buildings in the 1950s and 1960s and the construction of shops with a contemporary design broke up the historic appearance of many rows of houses. Since the beginning of the 1970s, however, Lüneburg has been carefully and lovingly restored. The restoration process revealed hitherto hidden ceiling frescos, medieval pottery workshops and many historic soakaways (Sickergruben) from which a considerably better picture of life in the Middle Ages resulted.
In the Lüneburg district of Kaltenmoor is St. Stephen’s (St. Stephanus), the oldest ecumenical building in the town, with Protestant and Catholic churches under one roof. Other buildings worthy of particular mention are the three remaining town churches: St. John (St. Johannis am Sande, completed 1370), St. Michael (Michaeliskirche), where Johann Sebastian Bach was a choirboy from 1700 to 1702, and the relatively ‘modern’ St. Nicholas (Nikolaikirche), which was built in 1407. The Church of St. Lambertus (Lambertikirche) had to be demolished in 1850 due to its dilapidated state; it stood in the subsidence area.
