Ortelius. A research atlas of thematic cartography
EST. MMXXVI PRIME MERIDIAN 0°00′00″  ·  EQUATOR 0°00′00″  ·  PROJECTION: ORTHOGRAPHIC 22 STUDIES INDEXED
Demographic ·Early Modern ·Continental ·Europe

Towns & Kontors of the Hanseatic League

Member towns, foreign kontors and trading posts of the Hanseatic League.

30 records 1159–1450 CE 53.99° N · 12.25° E
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Fig. 1 Interactive distribution of the 30 geolocated records on a live carto-positron base · globe / flat projection · decimal degrees (WGS 84).
Abstract

The urban network of the Hanseatic League: the chartered member towns of the German and Baltic coasts, the four great foreign kontors (Novgorod, Bergen, Bruges, London) and lesser trading posts. Each place is marked by its role and an indicative date of association, exposing the commercial spine that bound the North and Baltic Seas. The compilation is illustrative and representative, not a complete roster.

Record
ThemeDemographic — linguistic & population
RegionEurope
Temporal range1159–1450 CE
Geographic coverageContinental
Records30 geolocated entities
Data sourceRepresentative compilation (manual)
Centroid53.99° N · 12.25° E
Last revisedJun 2026
Provenance & sources

A hand-assembled, representative selection of Hanseatic towns, kontors and trading posts (place, role and an indicative association date), drawn from standard accounts and simplified for cartographic illustration.

Recommended citation
Ortelius Editorial Board, ed. “Towns & Kontors of the Hanseatic League” [dataset]. Ortelius: A Research Atlas of Thematic Cartography, Study AT-048. 2026. doi:10.5281/ortelius.048
DATASET CC BY 4.0 · ENRICHMENT CC0 · CARTOGRAPHY MIT
Data & reproducibility

The published dataset is distributed as CSV with a derived GeoJSON edition; coordinates are decimal degrees on the WGS 84 datum. DOI 10.5281/ortelius.048.