The Rise of Lubeck, Queen of the Hansa, 1143–1370 | Calm Bedtime History

You stand on the eastern bank of the Trave River, where the water widens into a sheltered bay before meeting the Baltic Sea. It is the year 1143. Count Adolf II of Holstein has chosen this spot, a day's sail from Denmark and within reach of Slavic territories to the east, to plant a new settlement. The ground is soft. The air smells of tidal mud and pine resin from the surrounding forests. Somewhere beyond the tree line, a smith hammers out the first iron nails that will hold together the wooden palisades of a town that does not yet know its own future.