St. Nicholas Church, Hamburg

The ruined St. Nicholas Church stands in central Hamburg as a memorial to the victims of war and persecution. Completed in the mid-nineteenth century to a Gothic Revival design, it was briefly the tallest building in the world and long the tallest structure in the city. Firestorms during the 1943 Allied bombing gutted the church, and only its soaring spire and outer walls survive. A glass lift now carries visitors up the tower to a viewing platform, while the crypt below houses an exhibition on the air war and the church's history.