HOLI Hamburg

Schlankreye 69, 20144 Hamburg

The HOLI on Schlankreye in Hamburg's Harvestehude quarter is an anomaly within the CinemaxX portfolio -- the only traditional single-site cinema in a chain of modern multiplexes. Opened in 1951 in a residential building near Grindelberg, its name derives from Hochhaus-Lichtspiele, and the large auditorium seats up to 450. The sequin-adorned curtain in Screen 1, hand-painted by artist Friedrich Schwiek with Hamburg city motifs, has been carefully restored and placed under monument protection -- believed to be the only heritage-listed cinema curtain in the world. The programme favours arthouse and original-version screenings, and the HOLI occasionally hosts live transmissions of opera and ballet from the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera. In a city of multiplexes, the HOLI preserves a more intimate, historically grounded way of watching films, and its protected curtain rises each evening as it has for over seven decades.