Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Comely LUNENBURG, 10km south of Mahone Bay village, perches on a narrow, bumpy peninsula, its central gridiron of streets clambering up from the main harbourfront flanked by brightly painted wooden houses. Dating from the late nineteenth century, the most flamboyant of these mansions display an arresting variety of architectural features varying from Gothic towers and classical pillars to elegant verandas, high gables and peaked windows, all embellished with intricate scrollwork. Amidst the virtuousity, a distinctive municipal style is noticeable in the so-called "Lunenburg Bump", where triple-bell cast roofs surmount overhanging window dormers – giving the town a vaguely European appearance, which is appropriate considering its original settlement. Lunenburg was founded in 1753 by German and Swiss Protestants, who of necessity soon learned to mix the farming of their homeland with fishing and shipbuilding. They created a prosperous community with its own fleet of trawlers and scallop-draggers, although nowadays the town earns as much from the tourist industry as from fishing.