The façade and tower
A 111-metre front carrying twenty emperors, under a tower rising 112 metres over the square.
Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de — CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Arnoldius — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Daniel Schwen — CC BY-SA 2.5 · Soluvo — CC BY-SA 4.0
Yes — the ground-floor lobby is free during opening hours and gives a real sense of the building's grandeur. But the upper state rooms, which are far finer, are only seen on the guided tour. If time is short, the lobby, façade and square are enough.
Yes — that is its distinction: the state parliament and government genuinely meet here. Rooms can therefore close and tours pause on session days and official occasions.
Rathausmarkt is out front, the Inner Alster is two minutes away, Mönckebergstrasse shopping starts here, and the Speicherstadt warehouse district is a short walk.
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Hamburg's Rathaus is among the grandest city halls in Europe, finished in 1897 when the city's trading wealth was at its height. A city of merchants wanted to show the world it needed no king and no palace — so it built itself something to rival both. It has 647 rooms, more than Buckingham Palace. The building still does its original job: the state parliament and government meet here to this day, for Hamburg is both a city and a federal state. The 111-metre façade carries statues of twenty German emperors, and the tower rises 112 metres over Rathausmarkt square. Entry to the main lobby is free, and its columns and vaulted ceilings alone are worth the stop. The grand state rooms are seen on a short guided tour, offered in several languages through the day.
A 111-metre front carrying twenty emperors, under a tower rising 112 metres over the square.
The grandest room on the tour, with vast chandeliers and murals of Hamburg's history.
A quiet inner court with the Hygieia fountain, built in memory of the 1892 cholera epidemic.
Rathausmarkt 1, 20095 Hamburg