Tom`s travels: Stade & Buxtehude (19/12/2020)

After heading to Hamburg for the Christmas holidays to Ania's parents, we decided to do a day trip to two nearby towns which I didn't have the chance to visit when working there. Our first stop was the town of Stade, located southwest of Hamburg on the other side of the Elbe river. Having a long history, this town in medieval times, from the 13th century to the late 17th century, was a prominent member of the Hanseatic League but was later eclipsed by Hamburg. This is why to this day, like other towns in northern Germany is still officially named the Hanseatic City of Stade. It is also included in the German Timber-Frame Road featuring in fact a lovely old town with timber-framed buildings. So after a switch in Hamburg's main station, we reached the town by using the local S-Bahn train connections. From the station, a short walk then took us into the old town where we immediately started seeing the old buildings. Not far on we then reached and entered the church of St Wilhadi, a three-aisled Gothic hall church from the 14th century with its tower dating from the 13th century. The interior is quite empty and whitewashed and features a baroque altar from Hamburg dated 1660 and an 18th-century organ. After visiting the church we walked in the vicinity admiring the nice architecture of the houses, palaces, and other buildings, and then reached the city's other main church, that of St Cosmas and Damian. The current building is the result of various constructions and renovations from the 13th to 17th centuries, with its iconic 62m tall spire dating to 1684 in a Baroque style. The church was unfortunately closed so we decided to move on and continue or walk through town. Continuing along the main street, Hökerstraße, we then reached the town's most known area, the Hansehafen, the old Hanseatic port. Featuring a central canal it is sided by beautiful timber-framed houses and once served as the main trading hub on the Schwinge river which then connected it to the Elbe and the sea. The houses on the west side of the canal go back to the 15th century, while those on the eastern side are more recent as they had to be reconstructed after the Stade in 1659 which destroyed nearly 60% of the city. Right next to the canal, where it ends and opens up into the Fischmarkt square, there is a wooden crane which is very similar to the one found in the nearby city of Luneburg. Unlike the latter, this one in Stade is a 1977 modern reconstruction of the old one from 1661 that was torn down in 1898. Among the many nice buildings facing the harbor, there is a Weser renaissance gabled house known as the Bürgermeister-Hintze-Haus and the Schwedenspeicher, a 17th-century Baroque building that was built as a warehouse during the Swedish rule of the city. From the old harbor, we then decided to head back through town further admiring the nice timber-framed architecture by walking some of the town's side streets as well. Then, once back to the train station, after just a few stops we reached the second and last town on the trip, Buxtehude. A Hanseatic city like Stade, Buxtehude features a nice historic center with some timber-framed houses as well. After reaching the station and getting off the train we headed in the direction of the old town. We noticed the nice Christmas decorations dotting the town, however, it was quite void of any people, unlike Stade, and thus not so lively as expected. Nevertheless, it was nice to stroll around and admire the architecture. We walked along the main street, Lange Straße, and ended up passing by the main church, that of St Peter. Originally dating to the 13th century but rebuilt in a neogothic style during the 19th century, it was unfortunately closed during our visit. So we continued onwards and walked through some more nice streets. Particularly picturesque was a street running on a north-south line, sided by a canal and lined by many old timber-framed houses. Not as large as Stade, our walk around Buxtehude was at an end and it was time for us to head back to the nearby station and take the next train back into Hamburg.