I've already written about Lunenburg, and some information will be repeated, as the history explains why Lunenburg received UNESCO World Heritage status. Since 1995, UNESCO has considered Lunenburg (old town) "the best example of planned British colonial settlement in North America, as it retains its original layout and appearance from the 1800s, including local wooden vernacular architecture" [1]. The town had approximately 2,400 inhabitants in 2021. The toponym Lunenburg could be an Anglicized version of Lüneburg, a city in northern Germany, about 40 km from Hamburg. The name of the Mi'kmaq First Nation, which is unknown, had been frenchified into "Mirliguèche", but then has been changed to the current name, when almost exclusively Germans came to Lunenburg. Who actually gave the town its name remains unclear; possibly in honor of King George II of Great Britain, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (called Hanover) and nominally Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg [2].
Let's take a closer look at the history. In 1753, Germans from the Black Forest region and Swiss people arrived there, having been recruited. Approximately 400 families, totaling about 1600 people, arrived in the promised land. Previously, the French had already cultivated the land there, but the British in Halifax couldn't find enough people willing to move there, or rather, they refrained from doing so because they were considered too lazy. However, it turned out that the hired farmers couldn't practice agriculture there at all, or at least not sufficiently, as the soil wasn't suitable. The new inhabitants quickly adapted, and the farmers became fishermen and boat builders... and they became very good boat builders, which is why the houses were also built of wood. "The first houses were log cabins, but later a form of wooden construction developed, so that later the Castle on the Hill and churches were also built this way."
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| Bosa, Sardinia, Italy |
The oldest surviving building is located at 57 York Street, not far from the Castle on the Hill. The house was originally much smaller and had been later extended. According to the description on site: about half to two-fifths on the right side of the house. Previously, the paintwork wasn't colored, but a little color simply looks better. The gray houses of London in the 19th century [3] certainly looked less appealing than the colorful houses of the Amalfi Coast or like the ones in the picture I took in Sardinia and show here. In any case, the place invites you to stroll through it slowly. Enjoy your visit too!
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunenburg,_Nova_Scotia
[2] Lunenburg - Castle on the Hill (Nova Scotia, Canada)
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2025/09/lunenburg-castle-on-hill-nova-scotia.html
[3] www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/the-rookery-a-notorious-slum-in-st-giles-london-circa-nachrichtenfoto/52982396?adppopup=true
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