St. Peter's Church — Attraction in Hamburg

Just a few steps away from the City Hall, St. Petri, named for the apostle Petrus, is one of Hamburg's five main Christian churches. Built in the eleventh century, it became Hamburg's oldest church after the Mariendom was torn down in 1805.

Although during the Great Fire of 1842 the Gothic church was entirely consumed by the flames, just seven years later, the newly reconstructed building was introduced to the public. During WWII, in July of 1943, the air attacks of 'Operation Gomorrah' caused yet another massive fire in the city. Fortunately, this time tower wasn't seriously damaged, though the same cannot be said of the rest of the city, nearly half of which was destroyed.

If you manage to climb the 544 steps to the viewing platform, you'll be rewarded with a beautiful view through the tower's portholes. From this remarkable height, you overlook the entire city centre, including the City Hall, the Alster Lakes and even the cranes in the port far in the distance.

The tower is open from Monday to Saturday between 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The last entry to the tower's staircase is at 4:30 p.m.

Visiting hours may change, so please check the church's website for the latest information.

It is believed that the church is near the original Hammaburg area and that a previous church or cathedral existed on the site. St. Peter's was probably built in early 1189; it was first documented in 1195 as a market church or ecclesia forensis. About 1310 it was rebuilt in a Gothic style and was completed around 1418. The bronze lion-head door handles, the oldest work of art of Hamburg, date from the foundation of the tower in 1342.

The tower, topped with a new copper-covered spire in 1516, at 127.5 m towered above even that of the neighbouring Hamburg Cathedral, but was surpassed itself already in 1518 by the tower of St. Nicholas Church at initially 135 m. Decay and political tensions caused the cathedral to be torn down between 1804 and 1807. Under the subsequent French occupation St. Peter's along with most of the other main churches in 1813 was commandeered by Napoleonic soldiers to be used as a horse stable.1[3] Only a few decades later it fell victim to the great fire that swept Hamburg in May 1842. Most works of art, such as the lion-head door handles, were saved. The St. Peter's portal gateway was heavily damaged in the fire but was saved and ended up being built into the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte (established in 1922 and called Hamburg Museum since 2005), and the doorway itself was restored again in 1995.

Only seven years after the great fire, the Gothic church was rebuilt by architects Alexis de Chateauneuf and Hermann Felsenfest in its previous location. In 1878, the 132 meter high church tower — its copper spire designed years earlier by Johann Hermann Maack [de] — was finished.

In the first half of the 20th century, the parish lost many members, as residential neighborhoods were torn down to develop banks and department stores in the city center. The church got through the Second World War relatively intact. In 1962, as a nearby community center was being built, the foundations of a medieval tower, the Bischofsturm ("Bishop's Tower") were discovered.

In 1979, nuclear power protesters, including the late pastor Christoph Stoermer, occupied the cathedral. From 2005 to 2007, the west and south facades of the church were hung with giant posters advertising the H&M chain of clothing stores, thus providing funding for maintenance of the cathedral.

Source: hamburg . com...

If you are looking to get just a bit closer to Heaven (elevation-wise!) in Hamburg, Hauptkirche St. Petri (St. Peter's Church) is the place to go! Unlike most church towers with similar steeple spires (which frequently constitute at least a third of the overall height of the tower) here you can climb all the way inside the spire to very near the top. This gives you "the highest accessible viewing platform in the city" an altitude of 123 meters! This is quite rare! I have climbed numerous church towers in Europe, and this is the very first one that I have found that allows this.

To reach this height you will need to ascend 544 steps. Look carefully at a photo of the tower and you will observe tiny porthole windows at four regular intervals all the way up the spire. On your climb you will be able to look out of any of these windows! The viewing platform at the very top of the stairs is no bigger than three meters across!

This excursion is not a recommended for those who are acrophobic or claustrophobic! They even have you sign a log before you make the climb, and have you check off your name when you return, so that they know you have made it back safely! And, the friendly staff in the gift shop (from where you begin the climb) offers you a glass of water to revive yourself… which was well appreciated.

The price to ascend the tower was only 3 EUR, and this easily ranks as my number one favorite of all the towers I have climbed (certainly the highest, and the...

St. Peter's Church is a formerly catholic cathedral that was converted to a Protestant cathedral after the Reformation. While not monumental in scale, it’s an interesting Gothic church for its use of red bricks, but otherwise very gothic niches with sculptures of saints, and typical gothic interiors. In some ways the interiors are typically protestant for it’s sparse decorations, the entrance into the church can be quite picturesque as you have to pass through triple arches which beautifully frames the high altar and the stained glass behind it.

To the right of the altar is also a painting with interesting depiction of Jacob’s Ladder. Not quite as beautiful as St. Michael’s, but worth a look...