4 Best Sights in Schleswig-Holstein and the Baltic Coast, Germany

The home of the former dukes of Mecklenburg stands next to the Marienkirche. It's an early-16th-century Italian Renaissance palace with touches of late Gothic. The facade is a series of fussy friezes depicting scenes from the Trojan War.

The impressive baroque Schloss Gottorf, dating from 1703, once housed the ruling family. It has been transformed into the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum (State Museum of Schleswig-Holstein) and holds a collection of art and handicrafts of northern Germany from the Middle Ages to the present, including paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Despite Husum's remoteness, surrounded by the stormy sea, wide marshes, and dunes, the city used to be a major seaport and administrative center. The Husum Castle, which was originally built as a Renaissance mansion in the late 16th century, was transformed in 1752 by the dukes of Gottorf into a redbrick baroque country palace.

On an island near the edge of Lake Schwerin, this meticulously restored palace once housed the Mecklenburg royal family. The original palace dates from 1018 but was enlarged by Henry the Lion when he founded Schwerin in 1160. As it stands now, the palace is surmounted by 15 turrets, large and small, and is reminiscent of a French château. The portions that are neo-Renaissance in style are its many ducal staterooms, which date from between 1845 and 1857. Today, the castle is a seat of parliament. North of the castle's main tower is the Schlossmuseum. The Communist government restored and maintained the fantastic opulence of this rambling, 80-room reminder of an absolutist monarchy—and then used it to board kindergarten teachers in training. Antique furniture, objets d'art, silk tapestries, and paintings are sprinkled throughout the salons (the throne room is particularly extravagant), but of special interest are the ornately patterned and highly burnished inlaid wooden floors and wall panels.