The plain brick complex on this waterfront corner marks the spot where Kiel's founding castle once stood. Bombed to its foundations in 1944 and rebuilt as a concert hall, it is the city's dramatic story of loss and renewal in one building.

A grand former fish auction hall on the fjord, now Kiel's maritime museum, with a small fleet of historic ships moored right outside its door.

Kiel's oldest building rises over the Old Market Square, guarded by Ernst Barlach's haunting bronze angel, the Geistkämpfer. Church and sculpture both survived war and dictatorship to stand here today.

A grand Jugendstil town hall crowned by a soaring bell tower that looks as though it drifted north from Venice. Its 106 metre spire is Kiel's defining landmark, watching over the Rathausplatz and the little lake below.

Kiel's busy pedestrian shopping spine, a broad ribbon of shops and cafés that was the very first traffic-free street in West Germany. Beneath the modern facades runs one of the oldest roads in the city.

A working quay in the heart of the city where towering overnight ferries slip out toward Sweden. This is Kiel at its most Baltic, a place where the streets simply run out and the open water begins.

A slender footbridge across the innermost tip of the Kiel Fjord that folds upward into the shape of the letter N to let boats pass. It is the only three segment folding bridge of its kind in the world.

Altstadt