The old part of town is on a sand spur, which is located between the southwest of the maurine valley and the "schönen Berg" (germ. "beautiful hill"; 8m above sea-level). From here, the grounds plunge to all sites. This location gave the settlers in the Dark Ages a good strategic protection, but also just enough space for the market place and one road. The newer parts of town have been connected by dykes and bridges built in the 19th and 20th century.
On the hill in town the church is situated, which was built in the first third of the 13th century next to the market place, which was taken down around 1870. For a village or a small town, the church is of an unusal large size, but it used tulfill Schönberg's function as a bishops's residence in former times.
The central market place is the old village place, in which all streets end except for one. Some scientists believe, that in the Dark Ages this place was a trading centre for products, which were shipped over the Maurine to the north. Today, the buildings show houses of manual workers and traders, but also two farm houses with big buildings, which had been adminstered until the middle of the 20th century. The town hall wasn't built as a town hall, but as a citizen house.

The high street of the town is the August-Bebel-Straße. The buildings date from the 18th and 19th century; most of the houses were worker houses and homes of manual workers. In 1860 Schönberg had a population of nearly 2500 and nearly 270 firms of manual workers and traders, who provide the area with their products and services. Conspicuous is a high gable of a former farmhouse. Below, there used to be the Siemzer Tor until 1850. The Wallstraße was built after 1870. Schönberg has never had a town wall, but in the southwest the town was protected by a rampart and a trench.
Parallel to the August-Bebel-Straße there's the Hinterstraße like many small towns in Mecklenburg have. The Wasserstraße was used for access to the Maurine, from which was taken drinking and industrial water. This street was also built after 1870.

The stately Gothic building, the church, is surrounded by the street An der Kirche. The first priest's office, the priest's widow house, the church musician's house and the former school, contemporary museum, stood at the edge of the former grave yard which was left open after 1824. The Marienstraße leads to the market place. The Marienstraße was built after 1840 when the "Kunststraße", the so called "Art Street" was made with the help of dyke pouring and bridge building.

The Fritz-Reuter-Straße was the only exit in the south for hundreds of years. The river Maurine constituted the town border. There also was the second town gate, the Sabower Tor. For heavy cargos a northern situated ford was used to by-pass the gradient to the market place. After 1840 this gradient was taken down a bit. So some houses are situated a bit lower than the general street level.

The street Am Kalten Damm has existed since the dyke was built in the 16th century and leads to Lübeck. In former times it went to the episcopal castle, which was situated out of the old part of town in the Amtstraße.
The old part of Schönberg consits of seven streets but of these two were built after 1870. There were also some "Wasserstraßen", which went to the Oberteich, but today it exists only the street between the bank and the first priest's office in their old shape.