Portuguese quarter

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Scenery in the Portuguese Quarter during the 2008 European Football Championship

The Hamburg Portuguese Quarter is a district in the southern part of Hamburg's Neustadt.

It is limited in the west by the port gate (U / S-Bahn station Landungsbrücken) and in the east by the Neustädter Neue Weg. The northern border is the Venusberg. The streets Johannisbollwerk and Vorsetzen , located directly at the harbor, are the southern end of the district.

The architecture of the quarter is dominated by buildings from the Wilhelminian era and from the turn of the century. Ditmar-Koel-Straße, named after a Hamburg mayor from the Renaissance period, is the main street in the Portuguese quarter.

Today's Portuguese Quarter was originally shaped by small businesses, dock workers and companies in the shipping industry. Apart from the location of the quarter, shipping and the port no longer have a formative influence. The Nordic seaman's churches and some shipping companies are still located. These companies are the shipping companies "Nord" Klaus E. Oldendorf , the Schulte Group , the Bugsier shipping company and the shipping company Petersen & Alpers , which was founded in 1793 . These companies can be found on the southern edge of the Portuguese Quarter. The only remaining company from the ship equipment industry is the iron shop Chr. Weimeister . The harbor pharmacy, founded in 1768, still supplies medical equipment for seagoing ships.

Traditionally, small businesses, especially gastronomy , were and are strongly represented in this quarter . The presence of numerous “harbor bars” gave today's Portuguese Quarter the name “The Coast” in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 2000s there was a significant growth in gastronomy operations, so that in 2011 there were around 40 cafes and restaurants.

Panoramic picture of Hamburg's Portuguese Quarter on Ditmar-Koel-Strasse

In the 1970s, the quarter became a port of call for Portuguese immigrants . The reason for this development was the comparatively low rents and the proximity to the port with the jobs offered there. This immigration gave the quarter its current name. However, the number of residents with Portuguese roots has been falling for years. The immigration of the Portuguese (but also Spaniards) resulted in numerous Portuguese and Spanish restaurants, cafés and pastelarias. These establishments shape the cultural center of several thousand immigrants from southwest Europe. The Portuguese Quarter is also a magnet for tourists and a contact point for employees in the surrounding office buildings at lunchtime. It is also home to the Nordic seaman's churches in Ditmar-Koel-Straße : the Swedish Gustaf Adolfskyrkan , the Danish Benediktekirken , the Norwegian Sjømannskirken and the Finnish Hampurin merimieskirkko .

Web links

Commons : Portuguese Quarter  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 '  N , 9 ° 59'  E