Gateway to the World
Hamburg architecture
Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by some 2,500 bridges — more than London, Amsterdam and Venice put together. The city is also home to five of the world's 29 tallest churches, and for two years in the 1870s the spire of St. Nicholas made it home to the tallest building on Earth.
- 15Landmarks
- 1657Oldest · St. Catherine's Church
- 279 mTallest · Heinrich Hertz Tower
- 12Architects
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Before you go
- Fly intoHamburg Airport (HAM)
Hamburg Airport opened in January 1911, making it the oldest international airport in the world still in operation. It lies about 8.5 km north of the centre in Fuhlsbüttel, has been named after former chancellor Helmut Schmidt since 2016, and is linked to the city by its own S-Bahn line.
- CurrencyEuro (€)
- LanguageGerman
Standard German is spoken everywhere, but Hamburg's original language is Low German, known locally as 'Hamborger Platt'. Its traces survive in many street and place names and in old sea shanties such as 'Hamborger Veermaster'.
- Getting aroundU-Bahn, S-Bahn & Ferries
Trains, buses and harbour ferries all run under the HVV, which was the first transport association of its kind in the world — one ticket works across every company. Only about 41 km of the 101 km U-Bahn network is underground, which is why older residents still call it the 'Hochbahn' (elevated railway).
- Where to stayFind hotels in Hamburg on Expedia Vacation rentals on Vrbo
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- Tours and ticketsFind tours in Hamburg on GetYourGuide More tours on Viator
Skip-the-line tickets and guided tours of the landmarks. Stamped! may earn a commission.
15 landmarks in Hamburg
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Photo: Evgenii Salganik, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Elbphilharmonie
Platz der Deutschen Einheit, 20457 Hamburg, Germany
Nicknamed 'Elphi', the Elbphilharmonie is a shimmering glass concert hall perched on top of an old brick warehouse at the tip of HafenCity. Herzog & de Meuron kept the base of Kaispeicher A, a 1960s warehouse by Werner Kallmorgen, and set a new glass superstructure with a wave-like roofline on its own foundations above it. Its silhouette has been compared to a hoisted sail, a wave, an iceberg and a quartz crystal. Construction ran far over budget, ending in 2016 at €866 million, and the hall opened on 11 January 2017 with a concert by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.
- Built
- 2017
- Architect
- Herzog & de Meuron
- Height
- 110 m (361 ft)
- Stories
- 26
- Today
- Concert Hall
-
Chilehaus
Fischertwiete, Hamburg, Germany
The Chilehaus is the masterpiece of 1920s Brick Expressionism, a ten-storey office block whose razor-sharp corner looks like the prow of a ship. Fritz Höger designed it for shipping magnate Henry B. Sloman, and it was built between 1922 and 1924 from 4.8 million dark Oldenburg bricks around a reinforced-concrete frame. Because the ground near the Elbe is so soft, it stands on 16-metre-deep concrete piles and even spans the Fischertwiete street. Together with the Kontorhaus District and the Speicherstadt it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.
- Built
- 1924
- Architect
- Fritz Höger
- Style
- Brick Expressionism
- Stories
- 10
- Today
- Office
-
Photo: Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Speicherstadt
HafenCity, Hamburg, Germany
The Speicherstadt is the largest warehouse district in the world built on timber piles — oak logs driven into the riverbed. Built between 1883 and 1927 as a free-port zone where goods could be handled without paying customs, it stretches about 1.5 km through Hamburg's port. Its red-brick, neo-Gothic warehouses rise straight out of loading canals, laced with bridges and narrow streets. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, alongside the Kontorhaus District.
- Built
- 1927
- Architect
- Carl Johann Christian Zimmermann
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- Today
- Warehouse
-
Photo: Arnoldius, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Hamburg City Hall
Rathausmarkt 1, Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg's Rathaus is a sandstone-and-copper statement of the city's wealth and independence on the Rathausmarkt. Built from 1886 to 1897 under main architect Martin Haller, it still houses the First Mayor, the Senate and the state parliament. Its Neo-Renaissance exterior is crowned by a 112-metre tower with 436 steps, and inside there are at least 647 rooms — one was only discovered by chance in 1971. It is one of the few fully preserved buildings of historicism in Hamburg.
- Built
- 1897
- Architect
- Martin Haller
- Style
- Renaissance Revival
- Height
- 112 m (367 ft)
- Today
- City Hall
-
Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons St. Michael's Church
Neustadt, Hamburg, Germany
Known to everyone simply as the 'Michel', St. Michael's is Hamburg's best-known church and one of the most important Protestant Baroque churches in northern Germany. Its copper-clad 132-metre spire has long been a landmark for ships sailing up the Elbe. After lightning destroyed the first church in 1750, Johann Leonhard Prey and Ernst Georg Sonnin built a new one, inaugurated in 1762. A fire in 1906 gutted it again, and Julius Faulwasser rebuilt it in its old form but with a fire-resistant steel-and-concrete structure, reopening it in 1912.
- Built
- 1912
- Architect
- Johann Leonhard Prey, Ernst Georg Sonnin and Julius Faulwasser
- Style
- Baroque
- Height
- 132 m (433 ft)
- Today
- Church
-
Photo: AlterVista, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons St. Nicholas Church
Altstadt, Hamburg, Germany
The soaring spire of St. Nicholas is all that stands above ground of what was once one of Hamburg's great churches. English architect George Gilbert Scott designed the Gothic Revival church after the Great Fire of 1842, and when its 147.3-metre tower was finished in 1874 it was the tallest building in the world until 1876. Bombing in 1943 destroyed the church, leaving only the crypt and the largely hollow tower. Today the ruin is a memorial, and since 2005 a lift carries visitors to a viewing platform at 75 metres.
- Built
- 1874
- Architect
- George Gilbert Scott
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- Height
- 147 m (483 ft)
- Today
- Memorial
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Photo: Sterilgutassistentin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons St. Peter's Church
Altstadt, Hamburg, Germany
St. Peter's stands on what may be the oldest church site in Hamburg, first documented as a market church in 1195. The Gothic church that grew here was largely lost in the Great Fire of 1842, and Alexis de Chateauneuf and Hermann Peter Fersenfeldt rebuilt it in its old form within seven years. Its 132-metre copper spire was completed in 1878. Look for the bronze lion-head door handles from 1342 — the oldest work of art in Hamburg.
- Built
- 1878
- Architect
- Alexis de Chateauneuf & Hermann Peter Fersenfeldt
- Style
- Brick Gothic
- Height
- 132 m (433 ft)
- Today
- Church
-
Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons St. Catherine's Church
Altstadt, Hamburg, Germany
St. Catherine's was traditionally the church of Hamburg's seafarers, standing on an island opposite the old harbour. The base of its spire dates from the 13th century, making it the second-oldest surviving building in the city, while the nave was rebuilt in Brick Gothic style in the 15th century. A Baroque top added in 1657 brought the spire to 115 metres. Johann Sebastian Bach admired and played its great organ, and the church has been rebuilt after heavy bombing in 1943.
- Built
- 1657
- Style
- Brick Gothic
- Height
- 115 m (377 ft)
- Today
- Church
-
Photo: Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons Heinrich Hertz Tower
St. Pauli, Hamburg, Germany
The slender Heinrich Hertz Tower, 279.2 metres tall, is the highest structure on Hamburg's skyline. Architect Fritz Trautwein designed it with engineers Jörg Schlaich, Rudolf Bergermann and Fritz Leonhardt, and it was built between 1965 and 1968 for the German Federal Post Office. A 204-metre concrete shaft near Planten un Blomen park carries a steel-lattice mast, with eight stacked platforms starting at 128 metres, where an observation deck and revolving restaurant once welcomed visitors. Today it serves only for telecommunications and is no longer open to the public.
- Built
- 1968
- Architect
- Fritz Trautwein
- Height
- 279 m (916 ft)
- Today
- Telecommunications Tower
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Photo: Huhu Uet, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Dancing Towers
Reeperbahn 1, Hamburg, Germany
At the eastern end of the Reeperbahn, the Dancing Towers lean into each other like a couple dancing the tango. Designed by Hadi Teherani's BRT Architects after winning a competition, the two towers with their distinctive kink rise 85 and 75 metres and were completed in 2012. They hold offices, restaurants, a radio station and the Mojo Club, which returned to the site where it once played in a former bowling alley. Locals also call them the 'Tango Towers'.
- Built
- 2012
- Architect
- Hadi Teherani (BRT Architects)
- Height
- 85 m (279 ft)
- Today
- Office
-
Photo: Ajepbah, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Hamburg Dammtor
Dag-Hammarskjöld-Platz 15, 20354 Hamburg, Germany
Dammtor station is a graceful Art Nouveau train hall of glass and steel on the edge of Hamburg's park ring. Designed by Ernst Moeller, the present station opened in 1903, replacing an 1866 station about 100 metres away. Its name comes from an old city gate that stood here until the late 19th century. Despite serving long-distance, regional and S-Bahn trains, it is officially only a 'Haltepunkt' (stop) because it has no track switches.
- Built
- 1903
- Architect
- Ernst Moeller
- Style
- Art Nouveau
- Today
- Railway Station
-
Photo: Ajepbah, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons Köhlbrand Bridge
Köhlbrand, Hamburg, Germany
The Köhlbrand Bridge is a sweeping cable-stayed bridge that carries traffic high over the port of Hamburg. Built from 1970 and opened in September 1974, it stretches 3,618 metres with a 325-metre main span. Its pylons rise 135 metres, giving ships 55 metres of clearance as they pass along the Köhlbrand arm of the Elbe. It links the harbour on Wilhelmsburg island with the A7 motorway and is one of the defining sights of the port skyline.
- Built
- 1974
- Height
- 135 m (443 ft)
- Today
- Bridge
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Photo: Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Old Elbe Tunnel
St. Pauli, Hamburg, Germany
When the Old Elbe Tunnel opened in 1911 it was a technical sensation: two 6-metre tubes running 426 metres under the river, 24 metres below the surface. It gave tens of thousands of workers a direct route from St. Pauli near the Landungsbrücken to the docks and shipyards on the south bank. Huge lifts on each side still carry people and bikes down to the tunnels, whose walls are decorated with glazed terracotta fish, crabs and other river motifs. It is open around the clock for pedestrians and cyclists, though closed to cars since 2023.
- Built
- 1911
- Today
- Tunnel
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Photo: Chat W from Edinburgh, Scotland, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Hamburger Kunsthalle
Glockengießerwall, 20095 Hamburg, Germany
The Hamburger Kunsthalle, one of Germany's largest art museums, is really three linked buildings from three eras. The original red-brick building by Georg Theodor Schirrmacher and Hermann von der Hude opened in 1869, followed by Fritz Schumacher's domed Kuppelsaal extension, completed in 1921. In 1997 Oswald Mathias Ungers added the stark, cube-like Galerie der Gegenwart for contemporary art. It sits between the Hauptbahnhof and the Alster lakes.
- Built
- 1869
- Architect
- Georg Theodor Schirrmacher & Hermann von der Hude
- Today
- Museum
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Photo: Claus-Joachim Dickow, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons Laeiszhalle
Johannes-Brahms-Platz 20, 20355 Hamburg, Germany
The Laeiszhalle is Hamburg's grand old concert hall, named after the shipping company F. Laeisz that founded it. Martin Haller and Wilhelm Emil Meerwein designed it in Baroque Revival style, and it opened on 4 June 1908 as Germany's largest and most modern concert hall. Richard Strauss, Prokofiev and Stravinsky all performed their own works here. Today it is home to the Hamburger Symphoniker and the Philharmoniker Hamburg.
- Built
- 1908
- Architect
- Martin Haller & Wilhelm Emil Meerwein
- Style
- Baroque Revival
- Today
- Concert Hall
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