ROSTOCK  , a

town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, one of the most important commercial cities on the Baltic . It is situated on the left bank of the estuary of the Warnow, 8 m. from the port of Warnemunde on the Baltic . 177 M . N.W. of Berlin by rail, 8o m . N.E. of Lubeck, and 106 m . S. of Copenhagen . Pop . (1905) 60,790 . It consists of three parts—the old town to the east, and the middle and new towns to the west—of which the first retains some of the antique features of a Hanse town, while the last two are for the most part regularly and handsomely built . There are also several suburbs . The town has four gates, one of them dating from the 14th century, and some fine squares, among them the Blucher Platz, with a statue of Blucher, who was born here, and the Neue Markt . Rostock was a fortress of some strength, but the old fortifications have been razed, and their site is occupied by promenades .

Rostock has five old churches: St

Mary's, dating from 1398 to 1472, one of the most imposing Gothic buildings in Mecklenburg, with two Romanesque towers and containing a magnificent bronze font and a curious clock; St Nicholas's, begun about 1250 and restored in 1450, and again in 189o—94; St Peter's, with a lofty tower over 400 ft. high, built in 1400, which serves as a landmark to ships at sea; See Reinhold, Chronik der Stadt Rostock (Rostock, 1836) ; Krabbe, Die Universitat Rostock im 15 and 16 Jahrhundert (2 vols., Rostock, 1854), Koppmann, Geschichte der Stadt Rostock (Rostock, 1887); Volckmann, Rarer durch Rostock (3rd ed., 1896) ; the Geschichtsquellen der Stadt Rostock (Rostock, 1885) ; and the Beitrage zur Geschichte der Stadt Rostock (Rostock, 1890) .