Hamburg's historic port warehouses win UN World Heritage status

Berlin

THE United Nations cultural agency on Sunday designated Hamburg's historic maritime warehouse and business districts as World Heritage sites.

The Speicherstadt - the world's largest historic warehouse complex - is a district of connecting roads, canals and bridges dating from 1885 to 1927, lined with red-brick office buildings. Covering 26 hectares in the heart of the northern German city's bustling port area, its Gothic red-brick warehouses once stored high-value goods, such as coffee, spices and tobacco, said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).