Count Orlok plagues the fictional German town of Wisborg in Nosferatu.
In F. W. Murnau’s 1922 film, Thomas Hutter travels from Wisborg to Transylvania to meet Orlok, who intends to purchase a house across from Hutter’s home. Orlok later arrives in Wisborg by ship, bringing coffins, rats, and an epidemic that devastates the town.
Wisborg is not a straightforward historical location. The name resembles Wismar, a real Baltic port city in northern Germany, and the film used several German locations to create its townscapes. This blending of real architecture and invented geography gives the story a recognizable German setting without tying every event to one actual city.
Viewers sometimes answer Wismar because of the visual connection, while Lübeck is another real northern German city that can seem plausible. Holstenwall, however, belongs to a different fictional setting associated with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The film’s spelling is Wisborg; later adaptations and discussions may emphasize different real-world inspirations, but Wisborg is the canonical town name in the original film.