Hamburg Rathaus, one of the most extravagant city halls anywhere. Opened in 1897, the huge renaissance-style building, with emperors of the Holy Roman Empire in niches across the front, was substantially damaged in World War II. It was restored and reopened in 1957.
Hamburg Rathaus: Side view
Left as a ruin as a World War II memorial, this building actually dated only from 1882. Replacing an earlier church destroyed in an 1840s fire, it was designed in neo-gothic style by the eminent British architect Sir Gilbert Scott.
St. Nicolai Church, Hamburg: Chancel
St. Michael Church, Hamburg. This particular building, replacing earlier ones on the site, dates only from 1909.
St. Michael Church, Hamburg: Interior
St. Petri Church, Hamburg: A typically gloomy North German church
St. Petri Church, Hamburg: Interior, during choir concert
HAMBURG: After concerts in three different cities in three successive evenings, everyone was glad to have a day off in this bustling North German city It’s a city of great architecture, both old and new–although a lot of the “old” is actually post-World War II reconstruction.
It was sobering to read the statistics at St. Nicolai Church, left in ruins as a memorial. Allied bombings of the city in 1943 left 30,000 dead, 900,000 homeless and 250,000 homes destroyed. The plaque also acknowledged the atrocities of the Nazi regime.