St. Anne's Museum Quarter

St. Anne’s Museum Quarter stands in Lübeck’s south-eastern quarter, a cluster of brick buildings that once formed an Augustinian nunnery built between 1502 and 1515. The priory church was demolished after a fire in 1843, leaving only fragments, but the cloister, refectories and chapter house survive on the ground floor. The complex later housed a poorhouse, a prison and a spin house built in 1778. In 1915 the monastery became St. Anne’s Museum, now recognised for its medieval sculpture and altar-pieces. The museum also displays domestic interiors from the Renaissance to the 19th century and a modern Kunsthalle added in 2004. The museum’s medieval collection is Germany’s largest, with altarpieces by Hans Memling, Bernt Notke, Hermen Rode and others that once stood in Lübeck churches. Among them is the Grönauer Altar, the only surviving Gothic high altar from a Lübeck church. The council silver collection shows the craftsmanship of Lübeck’s goldsmiths after the Reformation. A baroque floorboard from 1736 and faience from northern Germany illustrate changing tastes. The Kunsthalle, designed by Konermann Siegmund, won a regional architecture prize and exhibits modern art. Visitors walk through the preserved cloister and chapter house before climbing to the first floor to see the medieval altarpieces. The second floor recreates rooms from Lübeck town-houses, furnished with porcelain, paintings and toys. The chamber of paraments displays liturgical vestments from Lübeck and Gdańsk. The Kunsthalle, set beside the ruins of the old church, shows 20th-century works. The whole quarter forms part of Lübeck’s World Heritage site.