Saint Peter's Church, Hamburg: Distant view of St. Petri and the spire, from near the Rathaus

St. Peter's was probably built at the start of the 11th century; it was first documented in 1195 as a market church or ecclesia forensis. In about 1310, the church was rebuilt as a brick Gothic hall church and was completed in approximately 1418. The bronze lion-head door handles, the oldest work of art of Hamburg, date from the foundation of the tower in 1342. Only seven years after the great fire of 1842, the Gothic church was rebuilt by architects Alexis de Chateauneuf and Hermann Felsenfest in its previous location. In 1878, the 132 meter high church tower, its copper spire designed by Johann Maack, was finished.