St. Peter’s Evangelical Church

This beautiful red-brick building is St. Peter’s Evangelical Church, the oldest church in the city. Let’s go back to the Middle Ages. Back then, a small wooden chapel stood here, at the highest point of Hamburg’s first settlement, near Hammaburg, the Carolingian fortress that gave the city its name. In 1220, the Pope elevated the chapel to cathedral status, dedicating it to the apostle Simon Peter. By the 14th century, Hamburg was thriving, and its growing population needed a larger place of worship. The church was enlarged in the typical northern German style of “hall churches,” with tall, wide naves. After being destroyed in the Great Fire, it was rebuilt and reopened seven years later. It remarkably survived Operation Gomorrah, the World War Two bombing campaign that destroyed 60% of the city, and was fully restored after the war. You may have noticed the bronze statue behind the church. It’s a memorial to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian deeply involved in the German resistance. He was executed in a concentration camp in 1945. If you have time, step inside to see the breathtaking winged altar in the late Gothic style. A winged altar is a type of folding altarpiece, where the panels can be closed like doors. This one is the masterpiece of Master Bertram, one of the most significant painters of 14th-century German Gothic art. It’s one of the oldest fully preserved winged altars in northern Germany, and it’s truly magnificent.