Stade / Staden.

A fine antique map - a bird's-eye plan of Stade by Braun and Hogenberg, from: Urbium Praecipuarum Mundi Theatrum Quintum Auctore Georgio Braunio Agrippinate. Part 5. Köln, 1596.
COMMENTARY BY BRAUN (on verso): "The location of the town is not bad: it has healthy air and a convenient harbour that allows long-distance trade. It has richly populated suburbs, and outside the town magnificent, beautifully situated estates and gardens, as well as a higher court, whose visible signs, namely gallows and wheels, were displayed on one side of the town on the bank of the Elbe and one on the other side on the hill in front of the large gate, the first to punish pirates and the second to punish other wrongdoers."
Stade is seen in bird's-eye view from the west, looking across the Elbe marshes towards the River Elbe itself, which due to the elevated angle appears relatively near but which is in fact some 4 km distant.
The Schwinge River flows around the town and - in combination with the moat and the ramparts - formed part of Stade's defences. The harbour was built around 1000, and after Emperor Otto IV granted the town its charter in 1209, Stade joined the Hanseatic League.
Stade possessed the right to pass the death sentence, i.e. the right to carry out mutilations and executions, as evidenced top left by the gallows standing at the confluence of the Schwinge with the Elbe. In 1659 some two-thirds of the town burned down, so that the present map now possesses a historical character. (Taschen)

Reference: Van der Krogt 4, 4070; Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.392.