Monuments
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern witnesses of the past can be encountered at every turn: Approximately 23,000 monuments from architecture, fine arts, landscape architecture and engineering can be counted in our state.
The long list of architectural monuments is impressive. Brick Gothic and seaside resort architecture are two architectural styles which are typical of our state.Churches and monasteries in the towns and in the countryside, guild halls and houses of wealthy citizens, castles and manors, gates and towers give a picturesque account of the rich history and cultural history ofMecklenburg and Vorpommern.
Other monuments remind us of special eras: Approximately 400 milestones send their regards to present times from those days when the stagecoach was the fastest means of locomotion and communication. In the old days those milestones told travellers about places and distances. The “SocialisticVillage” of Mestlin, on the other hand, is evidence of the history of the GDR. In the 1950s this formerly small town was endowed with massive Stalinist buildings.
The technical monuments of today were formally used for generating energy: water mills and windmills, the predecessors of motor driven mills – they can all still be found today in many places.In Schwerin there is a remarkable old electric power plant, and in Bobzin a defensive looking water power plant of the 1920s can be visited. But also bridges like the lift bridge in Plau am See represent the history of engineering. The oldest preserved swing bridge in our state is in Schwerin. After all, the flat land in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a land of towers: Light houses, water towers and the TV tower in the state capital represent formally used technical achievements as well as modern information technology.
All these monuments require protection and maintenance. This task is the responsibility of the Landesamt für Kultur- und Denkmalpflege (State Office for the Preservation of Culture and HistoricMonuments) as well as the subordinate offices for the protection of historic monuments.