With rich terracotta decorations, the main university building was built in 1867 in the style of the Italian Renaissance. The university itself was founded in 1419. This makes Rostock University one of the oldest in Northern Europe and one of the 10 oldest universities in Germany. The founding faculties of Rostock University were medicine, theology, jurisprudence and philosophy. They are represented as symbolic figures on four pillars on the front facade. It currently has nine different faculties with over 30 courses and has around 15,000 students. The most important students since the university was founded were the astronomer Tycho Brahe, the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann and writers such as Erich Kästner, Arnold Zweig and Fritz Reuter. The Zoological Institute of the University of Rostock is located in the yellow building to the left of the main building. A visit is highly recommended for its extensive animal collection.

The Monastery of the Holy Cross is a completely preserved complex from the 13th and 14th centuries. The former Cistercian nunnery was founded in 1270 by the Danish Queen Margaret. The monastery was named after a splinter from the cross of Jesus Christ. Today it is the seat of the Rostock Cultural History Museum. The monastery complex includes the church (today the university church), the cloister and the refectory. From 1740 small houses were built in the monastery courtyard for the inmates of the monastery. Today these buildings are used in different ways, e.g. the Kempowski Archive or the Café Kloster.

The stone gate was built in the style of the Dutch Renaissance (1574-1577) on the foundations of the former Gothic southern main gate. The field side is plain, while the magnificent city side is adorned with the city's seal and coat of arms and the inscription "Sit intra te concordia et publica felicitas" (concord and general well-being reign within your walls).

The Kröpeliner Tor, first mentioned in a document in 1280, is the most magnificent of the 22 city and water gates. The six-storey gate with a height of 54 meters is today a city-historical meeting center and shows an exhibition on Rostock's city fortifications.

St. Marien is Rostock's most beautiful and most important church (1230). The transept and nave of the cruciform basilica are of the same length and emphasize the closed impression of this Gothic church. Worth seeing: e.g. Astronomical clock with ambulatory (1472) and bronze baptismal font (1290).