More than 2,000 Hamburg residents were buried below the simple grave slabs on which you’re now standing, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Often extravagantly decorated, many of the coffins are still preserved inside their chambers, each of which had enough space for up to five coffins.
When Napoleon’s troops occupied Hamburg round 200 years ago, burials were prohibited inside the city, which meant St. Michael’s lost an important source of income. But the church had already been finished by that time.
