As the main parish church of the citizens and the city council of Lübeck, it was built close to the town hall and the market.

St Mary's epitomizes north German Brick Gothic and set the standard for about 70 other churches in the Baltic region, making it a building of enormous architectural significance.

The sixth pair of pillars in the nave (from the west) dating from around 1200 can be seen as a remnant of the Romanesque Marienkirche in today's High Gothic building.

The design of the three-aisled basilica was based on the Gothic cathedrals in France (Reims) and Flanders, which were built of natural stone.

Probably originally dedicated to Saint Anne, the chapel received its current name during the Reformation, when paid scribes moved in.

Before 1444, a chapel consisting of a single bay was added to the eastern end of the ambulatory, its five walls forming five-eighths of an octagon.

Among the artefacts destroyed was the famous Totentanzorgel (Danse Macabre organ), an instrument played by Dieterich Buxtehude and probably Johann Sebastian Bach.

Other works of art destroyed in the fire include the Mass of Saint Gregory by Bernt Notke, the monumental Danse Macabre, originally by Bernt Notke but replaced by a copy in 1701, the carved figures of the rood screen, the Trinity altarpiece by Jacob van Utrecht (formerly also attributed to Bernard van Orley) and the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem by Friedrich Overbeck.

All church spires in Lübeck were reconstructed using a special system involving lightweight concrete blocks underneath the copper roofing.

A glass window on the north side of the church commemorates the builder, Erich Trautsch [de], who invented this system.

Since underfloor heating was being installed under a completely new floor, the remaining memorial slabs of Gotland limestone were removed and used to raise the level of the chancel.

The heat of the blaze in 1942 dislodged large sections of plaster, revealing the original decorative paintings of the Middle Ages, some of which were documented by photograph during the Second World War.

In what became the largest counterfeit art scandal after the Second World War, Fey hired local painter Lothar Malskat to assist with this task, and together they used the photographic documentation to restore and recreate a likeness to the original walls.

Before 1869, the wings of the predella, which depict the legends of the Holy Kinship were removed, sawn to make panel paintings, and sold.

[citation needed] In the renaissance and baroque periods, the church space contained so many memorials that it became like a hall of fame of the Lübeck gentry.

Of the 84 memorials that were still extant in the 20th century, almost all of the wooden ones were destroyed by the air raid of 1942, but 17, mostly stone ones on the walls of the side naves survived, some heavily damaged.

[12] Individual items from the altarpiece are now in the ambulatory: the Calvary group with Mary and John, the marble predella with a relief of the Last Supper and the three crowned figures, the allegorical sculptures of Belief and Hope, and the Resurrected Christ.

The debate as to whether it is possible and desirable to restore the altar as a major work of baroque art of European stature is ongoing.

The architectural features include the subjects of Lübeck legends; a large block of granite to the right of the entrance was supposedly not left there by the builders but put there by the Devil.

On Mengstraße, opposite the churchyard, is a building with facades from the 18th century: the clergy house known as die Wehde [de], which also gave its name to the courtyard that lies behind it, the Wehdehof.

The war memorial, created in 1929 by the sculptor Hermann Joachim Pagels [de] 1929 on behalf of the congregation of the church to commemorate their dead, is made of Swedish granite from Karlshamn.

The inscription reads (in translation): in memory of their dead 1914 1918 (to which was added after the Second World War) and Since the Reformation, St. Mary's Church has been where the top Lutheran clergyman of the city preached.

After the Reformation and Johannes Bugenhagen's Church Order, the Lübeck Katharineum school choir provided the singing for religious services.

For instance, the organist and organ-builder Barthold Hering (who died in 1555) carried out a number of repairs and additions; in 1560/1561 Jacob Scherer added a chest division with a third manual.

As a special tradition at St Mary's, on New Year's Eve the chorale Now Thank We All Our God is accompanied by both organs, kettledrums and a brass band.

Two 17th-century organists, especially, shaped the development of the musical tradition of St. Mary's: Franz Tunder from 1642 until his death in 1667, and his successor and son-in-law, Dieterich Buxtehude, from 1668 to 1707.

For the evening concerts they each composed a series of Biblical oratorios, including Israels Abgötterey in der Wüsten [Israel's Idol Worship in the Desert] (1758), Absalon (1761) and Goliath (1762) by Adolf Kunzen and ''Die Rettung des Kindes Mose [The Finding of Baby Moses] and Der geborne Weltheiland [The Saviour of the World is born] (1788), Tod, Auferstehung and Gericht [Death, Resurrection and Judgment] (1790), and Davids Klage am Hermon nach dem 42ten Psalm [David's Lament on Mount Hermon (Psalm 42)] (1793) by Königslöw.

Attitudes towards music and the Church had changed, and external circumstances (the occupation by Napoleon's troops and the resulting financial straits) made such expensive concerts impossible.

The performance of the St John Passion on Good Friday has become a Lübeck tradition as well as the concerts Nachtklänge, taking place twice each summer, and the Weihnachtssingen, happening four times each December.

From Mondays to Saturdays in the summer season and in Advent there is a short prayer service with organ music at noon (after the parade of the figures of the Astronomical Clock), which tourists and locals are invited to attend.