About this place
First mentioned in 1255 as a chapel outside the city gates for pilgrims on the route of St. James toward Santiago de Compostela, St. Jacobi grew into a Gothic brick hall church and became one of Hamburg's five Hauptkirchen. It came through the Great Fire of 1842 untouched, but on 18 June 1944 an Allied air raid set the church ablaze, the nave burned out and the spire crashed down through the vaults. Its greatest treasure survived: the organ built by Arp Schnitger in 1693, with sixty stops and roughly four thousand pipes, had been partly dismantled in 1942 and its pipework stored in safety, and the church's medieval altars were evacuated in time as well. Rebuilt to the medieval design by 1963, St. Jacobi carries a deliberately modern copper spire, 125 metres tall, a quiet acknowledgment that the break of the war years cannot be made invisible.
Key facts
- 1255 year — First documented mention of St. Jacobi, then a chapel outside the city walls serving pilgrims bound for Santiago de Compostela
- 4000 pipes — Approximate number of pipes in the 1693 Arp Schnitger organ, saved from the 1944 firestorm because the pipework had been moved to safe storage in 1942
- 125 metres — Height of the deliberately modern spire completed in 1963 to replace the tower destroyed on 18 June 1944
📍 Jakobikirchhof 22, 20095, Hamburg