Though it doesn't come often that a town hall becomes a touristic objective, the one in Hamburg surely is an exception; with its impressive architecture, all the more for a town hall building, it dominates the promenade of the inner city center.In 1842, following the Great Fire of Hamburg in which the old town hall was destroyed, construction for a new hall began, while the city council moved into a temporary building. Designed by seven architects, the new building took 44 years to complete, and cost 11 million gold marks, the equivalent of 80 million EUR in present day. After the war, the Hamburg Town Hall hosted several important visits from various heads of state, such as Emperor Hile Selassie, Queen Elisabeth, and Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.