St. James' Church

This guide to St. James' Church in Hamburg opens with a question: why would a guild of barrel makers commission the grandest altar among Hamburg's five great churches, carved around 1518 in the main choir. It traces the coopers' trade, the plain wooden casks that carried beer and salted herring along the Hanseatic routes, and how indispensable that unglamorous craft made them. Listen for how many guild altars once lined the church's columns before you look up at the coopers' own.