Spitalerstraße

Spitalerstraße[1] is a shopping street in the Altstadt quarter, Hamburg, Germany.

The street, a pedestrian zone, is one of the central shopping districts of the city and forms a diagonal junction from Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz/Mönckebergstraße boulevard in the west to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof/Steintorwall in the east.

[2] The street can already be found on old city maps in the year of 1200, while it was first mentioned in 1320 as Spitalerstrate.

There was also a "Spitaler Tor", a gate leading to the hospital, at the end of the street, but it only existed until the strong fortifications of Hamburg city walls were built in 1620 by Jan van Valckenborgh.

[4] While the houses at Spitalerstraße mostly weren't damaged in the Great Fire of Hamburg in 1842, a Cholera epidemic in 1892 led to the reconstruction of the former small and dark alleyway.