St. Pauli
St. Pauli located in the Hamburg-Mitte borough is one of the 105 quarters of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the Landungsbrücken are a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. Pauli contains a world famous red light district around the street Reeperbahn. Around 28,000 inhabitans are living here. At the beginning of the 17th century it developed as a suburb called “Hamburger Berg” (Hamburg mountain) outside the gates of the nearby city of Hamburg and close to the city of Altona. The name comes from a hill in that area that was planed by Hamburg in 1620 for defence reasons (free field of fire for the artillery). Therefore, settlement was initially allowed there, but soon businesses, which were not desired inside Hamburg, e.g. for their smell or noise, were relegated to “Hamburger Berg”. Also the rope makers (or “Reeper” in Low German) went here because in the city it was hard to find enough space for their work. The name of St. Pauli’s most famous street Reeperbahn, or “Rope Walk”, harkens back to its rope making past. When people were officially allowed to live in St. Pauli at the end of the 17th century the city government moved workhouses and (pestilence) hospitals out of the city to “Hamburger Berg”, which later was named after its church, “St. Pauli” (Saint Paul). read more…
Harvestehude is a quarter of Hamburg, in the borough of Eimsbüttel. It is located on the eastern boundaries of the borough near lake Außenalster. Located within Eimsbüttel borough is the former Jewish neighbourhood Grindel, the former center of Jewish life in Hamburg. Especially the quarter between Mittelweg and Harvestehuder Weg is a very affluent neighbourhood. read more…
Speicherstadt
The Speicherstadt is the world-largest timber-pile founded warehouse district of the world. It is located in the port of Hamburg—within the HafenCity quarter—and was built from 1883 to 1927. The district was built as a free zone to transfer goods without paying customs. As of 2009 the district and the surrounding area is under redevelopment. The warehouses were built with different support structures, but Andreas Meyer created a Neo-Gothic red-brick outer layer with little towers, alcoves, and glazed terra cotta ornaments. read more…
Klaipėda (German: Memel) is a city in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Curonian Lagoon where it flows into the Baltic Sea with a population of 186,000. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County. The city has a complex recorded history, partially due to the strategic regional importance of the Port of Klaipėda, a usually ice-free port on the Baltic Sea. It has been controlled by the Teutonic Knights, the Duchy of Prussia, the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Entente States immediately after World War I, Lithuania as a result of the 1923 Klaipėda Revolt, and the Third Reich following the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania. The city was incorporated into Lithuania during its tenure as a Soviet Socialist Republic and has remained within Lithuania following its re-establishment as a independent state. Popular seaside resorts found close to Klaipėda are Nida to the south on the Curonian Spit, and Palanga to the north. read more…
Plzeň (English: Pilsen) is a city in western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It is the capital of the Plzeň Region and the fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic. It is located about 90 km west of Prague at the confluence of four rivers–the Radbuza, the Mže, the Úhlava, and the Úslava–which form the Berounka River. The city is known worldwide for Pilsener beer. Pilsen was in September 2010 selected by an official jury to be put forward to join the Belgian city of Mons as the European capital of culture in 2015. read more…
Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic coast in northern Poland, at the centre of the country’s fourth-largest metropolitan area. The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay (of the Baltic Sea), in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population of over 800,000. Gdańsk itself has a population of 435,830 (June 2010), making it the largest city in the Pomerania region of Northern Poland. Gdańsk is Poland’s principal seaport as well as the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is also historically the largest city of the Kashubian region. The city is close to the former late medieval/modern boundary between West Slavic and Germanic lands and it has a complex political history with periods of Polish rule, periods of German rule, and extensive self-rule, with two spells as a free city. It has been part of modern Poland since 1945. read more…
Rotterdam is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands. The municipality is the second largest in the country, with a population of 600,000. The greater Rotterdam area is often known as “Rotterdam-Rijnmond”/”Rijnmond region” (Rijnmond literally translates into “Rhine’s mouth”, referring to Rotterdam’s location at the end of the Rhine-delta and its economic position as Europe’s main port), yet other versions can be suggested for greater Rotterdam. Depending on what version is chosen, the area contains between 1.2 and 1.4 million people. When including The Hague, with whom Rotterdam now shares the Rotterdam The Hague Airport and city-lightrail RandstadRail, the enlarged region approaches 2.5 million inhabitants. It forms the southern part of the Randstad, the sixth-largest metropolitan area in Europe, with a population of 6.7 million. read more…
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 370,000 inhabitants (1.5 in the metropolitan area). read more…
