An air of secrecy and adventure shrouds the alleys and courtyards: Visitors often need to leave familiar paths, watch their heads by entrances and exits and it can take a few minutes before eyes have adjusted to the somewhat dim surroundings of the peaceful oases. Many of the alleyways lead into another alley or catch visitors by surprise by depositing them into a familiar street.

The courtyards and alleyways in Lübeck’s Old Town are witnesses of medieval architecture and due to the care and maintenance of the people of Lübeck they are still inhabited nowadays and often accessible for the public.

Our recommendation: Spend your next Lübeck-holiday in a cosy alleyway-house! Some of the houses have been converted to homelike holiday apartments, that can be booked via our accommodation service ( Verlinkung http://booking.luebeck-tourism.de/luebeck/en/accommodation/list?customHeader=true )

Here is a little selection of the most famous alleyways:

• Engelsgrube (Angel’s path) – Where the English were called Angels

Hardly any other street in the Old Town shows a bigger variety. The origin of this designation is not to be found in the heavenly spheres, but can be traced back to the Hanseatic name for the English, who docked their ships at the end of the street.

• Hellgrüner und dunkelgrüner Gang

Through the low portal at the side of a baroque bourgeois house one enters the prettiest and cleanest of Lübeck’s alleyways: the Light and Dark Green Alley. Situated between Engelswisch and Untertrave and accessible from both ends, a forgotten world opens up, imparting a whiff of the old Lübeck: an interplay of narrow alleys, little shacks, courtyards like fields, alleys seeming to be blind and hidden exists.

• Lüngreens Gang

is one of the few alleyways where the remaining two-storey houses from the first half of the 17th century are under monumental protection. Moreover, it is one of the few alleys connecting two streets (Gruben). For tourists it is an adventure to get from the angled ways on the end towards the Bäckergang to the straight Lüngreens Gang and then finding themselves emerging from the idyll into the Fischergrube.

Find an overview of the courtyards and alleyways here.