Holstenwall

The Wallring (German pronunciation: [ˈvalrɪŋ]) is a semi-circular urban ensemble encircling the inner city of Hamburg. It consists of a four-lane ring road with a total length of 3.3 kilometers (2.1 mi) and a continuous built-up street front on its inner side. The outer perimeter is — for the largest part — made up by a string of parks.

The Wallring was developed in the first half of the 19th century, while razing the former city defenses (Wallanlagen). Forming the city's edge from the 1620s to the 1840s, it has since kept a strong footprint in Hamburg's urban fabric. The Wallring consists of several differently named sections, which — based on their common historical development — are characterized by a certain unity, but also by a number of dissimilarities. It also offers the inner city's largest network of parks, and forms a sort of hinge for Hamburg's green and open spaces along Elbe and Alster.

Etymologically, "Wallring" is derived from the German word "Wall" for Hamburg's former fortifications. Semantically, the Wallring was originally associated with the parks, and with the parks' semi-circular unity in jeopardy, the meaning shifted to the nonetheless continuous ring road. The parks alone are otherwise also referred to as Wallanlagen or Grüner Ring. The ring road, a succession of roads, is also referred to as Inner Ring or just Ring. The department of transportation's official designation is Ring 1 (German: Ring Eins) in reference to subsequent ring roads Ring 2 and Ring 3 further out.

For its heterogeneous quality, the Wallring is being differentiated as Westlicher (Western) and Östlicher (Eastern) Wallring. While the western Wallring has a continuous park front, the eastern Wallring is marked by traffic infrastructure. Regardless of the terminology for the ring road as a whole, its individual sections have proper street names.

The Wallring follows the course of Hamburg's former Wallanlagen (ramparts) developed by Dutch military engineer Johan van Valckenburgh between 1616 and 1625.

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