Altstadt - the Old Town and City Center

Altstadt (Old Town) is the east, largest and most central part of the city center of Hamburg. Because of the bombings by the allied ones during WWII, the old town is not so old. Some historic buildings have been rebuilt, but you can also find many modern buildings in Altstadt. In contrary to many other German cities, the city center have been rebuilt in a pretty good way. It is filled with canals, busy trafficated streets, grandiose buildings and some of the tallest churches in Europe. The heart of Altstadt is Rathausmarket, where the City Hall lies right above the Binnenalster lake.There are a lot of stores and shopping gallerias in the city center, some really exclusive ones are located around Rathaus with is arcades that goes above lakes and canals. You can also find world class museums, hotels and restaurants as well as a lot of jugend and renaissance buildings. Mönckebergstrasse, Steinstrasse and Jungernstieg at the lake are the main streets. Altstadt is situated just north of the new harbour district.

Steinstrasse towards St Jacobi and St Petri churches.

St Jacobi Kirche was destroyed during World War II, but was rebuilt in 1963 with a modern spire. It has its origins as a chapel from 1255.

Note the rental bikes, here at Steinstrasse.

Mönckebergstrasse is the most famous shopping street in the city center.

Mönckebergstrasse, looking towards St Petri Kirche, that I planned to climb.

The nice jugend building at the intersection Mönckebergstrasse/Steinstrasse.

Shopping arcade with ad for the Swedish energy company Vattenfall.

Elbphilarmonie Kulturcafé, nowadays known as Starbucks!

Karstadt is a large chain department store at Mönckebergstrasse.

A nice renaissance building at Mönckebergstrasse.

Europapassage, a modern large shopping galleria next to Karstadt.

The galleria has 5 floors.

Mönckebergstrasse with St Petri and Rathaus.

Another jugend building at Mönckebergstrasse, this one in red brick.

St Petri Kirche (St Peter's Church) from 1878 is the landmark of Mönckebergstrasse. It is 133m tall to the spire. It was built by Pope Leo the 10th. The current Gothic
church was built on top of several ruined churches from the past.

St Petri Kirche is the city's tallest remaining church (St Nikolai is taller but it is partly ruined). Between 2005 and 2007 huge H&M clothing store posters hung on 2 sides!

St Petri's steeple. 542 steps to climb and no elevator! Look at the aerial photos I took from there in the skyline section.

The interior of St Petri.

The bells of St Petri, seen from inside the steeple while walking on narrow stairs towards the top.

A red/white/blue Hamburg bus near Rathaus.

Rathausmarkt:

Rathausmarkt (City Hall Market) is the square in front of the City Hall, just next to the lake Binnenalster. The famous Jungernstieg with its arcade is also here.
The Rathaus is from 1898 and has 647 rooms, 6 rooms more than Buckingham Palace, on a building area of 5 400 m2.

Rathausmarkt is also a major bus hub and a subway hub underground.

It has a whole underground system with stores, restaurant and U-bahn stations underneath it, one of Europe's largest of its kind.

An old tower and Fernsehturm (TV tower) seen from Rathausmarkt. Note the modern bike taxi.

The tower of the City Hall (Rathaus) is 112m tall.

The Hamburg Rathaus by Martin Haller is a grandiose neo renaissance building from 1898. It has been the center for many historical moments of Hamburg.

The balcony is surmounted by a mosaic of Hamburg's patron goddess Hammonia, an inscription of the city's Latin motto that means:
" May posterity strive to preserve the freedom won by our elders".

Details of Rathaus.

Rathausmarkt towards St Petri and St Jacobi churches.

Rathausmarkt, St Petri kirche and the Highflyer balloon in the background.

This is where the Alsterfleet canal divides Altstadt from Neustadt, just across Rathausmarkt. Alsterfleet flows out to Binnenalster on the other side of the bridge.
On the Neustadt side is Alsterarkaden, the white building with an arcade supported by columns.

Alsterfleet with Alsterarkaden at sunset.

A local beer and curry sausage at Rathausmarkt at sunset.