Hamburg´s Harbour City

However, the vibrant district on the Elbe River has a lot more to offer than just the magni­fi­cent concert hall it is so famous for. Side by side, the historic Spei­cher­stadt and a vast new resi­den­tial area have been forming this
exci­ting new city quarter, known as Hafen­City (Harbour City), since 2008.
Once upon a time, thou­sands of sacks of coffee, tea and spices from all over the world were stored here in the Spei­cher­stadt. The old brick warehouses with their neo-Gothic archi­tec­ture, built between 1885 and 1927, were declared a UNESCO world heri­tage site in 2015. The buil­dings once consti­tuted the largest logi­stics centre in the world. While the Spei­cher­stadt has largely lost its func­tion as a warehouse district today, it is still considered the world’s largest trading centre for oriental carpets and rugs, where around 40 Iranian and Afghan traders jostle shoulder to shoulder to sell their colourful and opulent Berber carpets, kilims, and vintage rugs.

Today, as I walk through this historic district, the brick facades glow red in the suns­hine, stan­ding bold against a cloud­less blue sky. I let my gaze wander up to their pointed gables, where the coils of the rope winches protrude from the walls. A hook dangles in front of a hatch and I shout up to the trader jokingly: “Do you sell flying carpets, too?” He looks down, laughs and promptly returns: “Yes, come back tomorrow. The next ship­ment will float up to the higher storage levels by winch”. Just like sacks full of pepper a hundred years ago. Here, sales are still sealed with a handshake…