HafenCity

Speicherstadt

The world's largest continuous warehouse complex – a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2015.

Between 1883 and 1927, the Hanseatic city built 17 monumental brick-gabled warehouses on roughly 3.5 million oak piles – so that Hamburg's port could operate as a customs-free zone within Germany and merchants could store goods duty-free. Today it is the largest continuous warehouse ensemble in the world, and since 2015, together with the neighbouring Kontorhausviertel, a UNESCO World Heritage site. For visitors, the Speicherstadt is above all a photo motif: the canals (Fleete), the narrow bridges, the gables lit golden at night – the most famous Hamburg postcards all come from here. The most spectacular angle: from the railing of the Poggenmühlenbrücke onto the Wasserschloss at the Holländischbrookfleet. By day the warehouses house Miniatur Wunderland, the Hamburg Dungeon, the Speicherstadtmuseum, Spicy's spice museum and the German Customs Museum – easily a full half-day. In the evening, take a barge tour, ideally during the blue hour in September or October. Getting there: U3 Baumwall (the skywalk through the Elphi Plaza is included) or U1 Meßberg. Short on time: a 30-minute walk from the Rathausmarkt across the Trostbrücke and Holzbrücke into the Kontorhausviertel to the Chilehaus – Hamburg's densest hour of UNESCO.

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