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Stralsund received its city rights in 1234, making it the oldest city in Pomerania, and for two centuries it was one of the Baltic's most important ports. At the peak of the Hanseatic League, 300 ships flew Stralsund's flag. The city's wealth paid for churches of extraordinary ambition: St. Mary's was briefly the tallest church in the world from 1549 to 1569, though that record went unannounced, and the Brick Gothic facades along the Alter Markt still give the town a skyline that announces itself from the water before you've reached the dock.

The Strelasund strait separating the city from Rugen has always defined Stralsund's character.

For most of the city's history the only way across was by boat, which meant the island gateway was also Stralsund's identity. Sweden controlled the city from 1628 until 1815, nearly two centuries, and that Nordic overlay sits lightly on top of the German Hanseatic character. Today the Rügenbrücke, Germany's longest bridge, connects the city to Germany's largest island in minutes, and the Ozeaneum museum on the harbor, opened 2008, brings the Baltic and Atlantic oceans inside a glass building you can walk through in an afternoon.