Barlachstadt Güstrow

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So that one time we went on a bike ride to Copenhagen, we passed through Güstrow, a place I had never heard of before. But as soon as we were there I immediately knew I wanted to come back. And this weekend we did just that!

Getting There

Getting from Berlin to Güstrow, also known as Ernst Barlach Stadt after the famous artist, is really easy because the regional train RE5 goes directly there in just over two hours. The Quer-Durchs-Land ticket is your best bet for two people, especially if you plan to go just for the day, like we did. If you’re headed out alone and planning to stay a night or more (definitely recommended now that we’ve been!), the Stadt-Land-Meer ticket is the way to go. Now that we’ve visited, I definitely want to go back to check out a few more things.

It’s just a short walk from the train station to the city center. From the train station, we strolled through a nice green park that had been considerably torn up by a (large?) family of moles. A babbling creek runs along the edge of the park and the Altstadt.

Schloss Güstrow

OK, maybe you know me too well by now. The REAL reason I wanted to go to Güstrow was for the amazing Schloss we rode by on our bike trip. For €6.50, you can walk through three floors of the castle and its exhibitions. In the basement we saw religious art from the Mecklenburg region dating back to the 1400’s. The ground floor houses the historical dining rooms, hunting weapons, the menagerie paintings of Marten de Vos, as well as a few Cranach paintings. Located on the third floor is the banquet hall with a wild deer frieze and stucco ceiling, the portrait gallery, coin collection, and Italian furniture and paintings. The banquet hall impressed us the most. It is not just a stucco ceiling, but stucco reliefs of hunting scenes and animals.

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Next, we went outside to visit the gardens, which can be visited for free. Even though I would bet they are more spectacular and colorful in summer, we still found them charming. As we came outside blue sky began poking out from behind the clouds giving us a great view of the Schloss in the sunshine.

Güstrower Dom

Everything in Güstrow is fairly close together, so we hopped on over to the Dom which dates back to the 13^th century. Inside the northern German brick gothic cathedral, there are information sheets to borrow available in a multitude of languages. We used the sheet to take a small tour of the church, starting with the altar area. There are 3 lovely kneeling statues of Duke Ullrich, who built the Schloss, and his two wives Elisabeth von Denmark and Anna von Pommern. At the end of the tour, come three works of Ernst Barlach. The most famous of which is called “Der Schwebende” or “the floating one.” This once-controversial bronze statute, hung from the ceiling, is a monument to fallen soldiers, particularly those from WWI.

Pfarrkirche St. Marien

Then we visited the Pfarrkirche St. Marien, which we had also ridden past on our bike trip. Inside the church, we convinced the guy at the desk that we could indeed visit the tower and come back down before the church closed in a half an hour. We raced up the extremely narrow and low staircase. Really, I have no idea how it works if people want to go up AND down or if you’re over 5’8 (1.75m)! The view at the top was incredible. Somehow, the evening autumn light was hitting everything perfectly making a magically beautiful scene.

For another great trip from Berlin, check out Matthias and Kent’s weekend trip to Cottbus.

When we came down, the guy was impressed at how quick we were and told us a little bit about the history of the church. Then he also allowed us to get a closer look at the altar piece. I love people who are enthusiastic about where they are from/what they do, and this guy was one of them! He told us about the restoration of the monstrous artwork and showed us a few funny quirks about it. One of the scenes contains a monkey sitting on the back of a horse. Another has two children with their backs to the viewer, but on closer inspection you can see they are sticking their tongues out!

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Caaaake!

Nearly every Germany outing must end in Kaffee und Kuchen, not that I mind. Or for us tea, since we’re strictly no coffee (I know, we’re crazy). To be honest, Güstrow felt a little dead on a Sunday in November (don’t worry, it was definitely thriving in the summer!), but we could hardly find a seat in Café Küpper. The café has been open since 1887, starting with a man who had studied under Niederegger of the famous Lübeck Marzipan Confectionary. I had a raspberry-topped cheesecake and C ordered a slice of apple-poppy seed torte. When we asked about ordering seconds, we found out that almost all the cakes were already gone for the day! Perhaps we’ll get to try some other ones the next time we’re in Güstrow, because…

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Ernst Barlach

Yeah, we didn’t even get around to visiting the two museums about Ernst Barlach! There is the Ernst Barlach Stiftung located on the Inselsee, right near where we camped at the Burg Hotel. It’s a 3-4 km walk from town, or you can take the 252 bus. At the museum, a combination ticket is available for the second museum, the Gertrudenkapelle, which also houses Barlach’s works. If there’s even more time left over on the next visit, I would like to walk around some or all of the very large Inselsee.

Güstrow makes a fantastic outing from Berlin for the day or weekend. Or you could just stop along your way on the Berlin Copenhagen bike trail. In any case, we’ll be back again!