The UN cultural agency Sunday designated Hamburg’s historic maritime warehouse and business districts, boasting early 20th century German brick architecture, 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 (64 acres) 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, UNESCO said. As well as its architecture, it has more recently become a centre for tourism in Germany’s second biggest city, as well as a draw for innovative businesses or eateries. Opposite stands the ‘Kontorhaus’ office district in Hamburg’s old town, built in the 1920s and 1930s, which UNESCO

Read More: Hamburg’s historic port warehouses win UN world heritage nod