Bad Doberan

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Map of Germany showing Bad Doberan

Bad Doberan is a town in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is the capital of the district Bad Doberan. Population: 11,478 (2004).

Bad Doberan could be called a suburb of Rostock, since it is situated just 15 km west of Rostock's city centre. Today the town is a popular bathing resort, thanks to Heiligendamm, a district of Bad Doberan situated directly at the Baltic Sea.

[edit] History

The area's first settlers were Cistercian monks, who founded a monastery in 1171. Doberan (its original name) remained a small village until 1793, when the duke of Mecklenburg founded the first German bathing resort, Heiligendamm. Doberan and Heiligendamm have been connected by a narrow gauge railway the Mollibahn since 1886. The town has been called Bad Doberan since 1921 ("Bad" means "spa" and is a common prefix in Germany).

[edit] Sights

Bad Doberaner Münster

The classicist buildings characterizing the centres of Bad Doberan and Heiligendamm were all constructed between 1801 and 1836 by the architect Carl Theodor Severin.

However, the most famous building in Bad Doberan is the cathedral, or minster (Doberaner Münster, 1368), which once belonged to a Cistercian monastery and is one of the most impressive examples of North German brick architecture.