Kröpeliner Strasse, a broad, shop-filled, cobblestone pedestrian mall lined with 15th- and 16th-century burghers’ houses, runs from Neuer Markt west to Kröpeliner Tor.
At the centre of the mall is Universitätsplatz, and its centrepiece, the crazy rococo Brunnen der Lebensfreude (Fountain of Happiness; some of the people and animals shown seem to be engaging in acts deemed illegal in more religiously conservative places). True to its name, the square is lined with university buildings, including the handsome terracotta Hauptgebäude (1866–70), which replaced the famous ‘White College’. The university itself is the oldest on the Baltic (founded in 1419).
