Stade

Our rating: 7.80

2023-08-18

Probably the oldest city in northern Germany. The first settlers arrived here as early as 1000 BC. Around 800 AD, a settlement with a simple harbour was built. In 994 the settlement was sacked by Vikings and Stade is first mentioned as Stethu.

The main attraction is the Old Hanseatic Harbour, established in the Middle Ages, around 1000. The harbour got its present position and shape around 1300. For a long time it was tidal, but after the flood of 1962 the water from the river was restricted and the Hanseatic harbour was no longer navigable.

Stade ©Yurii Buriak

In the late 17th century, when Stade was under Swedish occupation, a granary was built to supply provisions to the military.

Stade ©Yurii Buriak

In 1712 the city was ceded to Denmark and in 1715 to the Kingdom of Hanover and the Hanoverian military continued to use the depot. With the decline of cargo shipping in the 1960s, it lost its function and was in danger of being demolished. The building opened as a city museum in 1977.

Stade ©Yurii Buriak

The crane is a reconstruction and is built on the site of the original crane demolished in 1898.

Stade ©Yurii Buriak

Other attractions in Stade include the entire old town with its picturesque half-timbered houses, many of which predate the town fire of 1659. Eleven years after the end of the Thirty Years' War, the town fire destroyed two-thirds of the town's buildings.