Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
vast main hall is the split-level double altar - the upper one is used on Sundays and
special occasions, while the sunken altar in the crypt, reached by a flight of broad
stairs, is used for weekday masses. All this is complemented by the stainless-steel
pipes of the ethereal-sounding organ above the entrance, and 1970s-style globe-
lamps hanging from the ceiling. If you've survived the combined effects of all this,
the crypt with its eight grotto-like side chapels and near-abstract charcoal drawings
is a further attraction.
1
Opernpalais
East of Sankt-Hedwigs-Kathedrale lies a lawn dotted with dignified
statues of
Prussian generals
. Among them are Scharnhorst, Yorck and Gneisenau, though
it's Blücher, whose timely intervention turned the day at Waterloo, who looks most
warlike - sabre in hand and with his foot resting on a cannon. he Baroque building
behind is the eighteenth-century
Opernpalais
. It was known as the Prinzessinpalais
(Princesses' Palace) before the war, for its role as the swanky town house of Friedrich
Wilhelm III's three daughters.
Schinkel Museum
Friedrichwerdersche Kirche • Daily 9am-4pm • Free •
W
smb.museum • S-Hausvogteiplatz
By ducking under two sets of arches beside the Opernpalais, in the southeast corner
of Bebelplatz, you'll come to the
Friedrichwerdersche Kirche
in which the
Schinkel
Museum
fittingly celebrates the work of the man, who, more than anyone, gave
nineteenth-century Berlin its distinctive Neoclassical stamp (see box below). he
church itself is a rather plain neo-Gothic affair, a stylistic departure for Schinkel, who
was largely infatuated with the Classical styles he had encountered on trips to Italy.
Here, however, the inspiration came from churches he had seen on a visit to England
in 1826. he museum gives a detailed history of the church, along with a full rundown
of Schinkel's achievements, setting his work in the context of the times. A jumble of
nineteenth-century German Neoclassical statuary crowds the ground floor.
Kronprinzenpalais
he Baroque
Kronprinzenpalais
on Unter den Linden dates from 1663, but is really
defined by a 1732 facelift that gave it a more grandiose appearance to reflect its role as
a residence for Prussian princes. With the demise of the monarchy in 1918 it became a
national art gallery and a leading venue for modern art. In 1933 the Nazis closed it,
declaring hundreds of Expressionist and contemporary works housed here to be
KARL FRIEDRICH SCHINKEL
1781
1841
The incredibly prolific architect
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
was without doubt one of the most
influential German architects of the nineteenth century. Nearly every town in Brandenburg has
a building that Schinkel had, at the very least, some involvement in. His first-ever design, the
Pomonatempel
in Potsdam, was completed while he was still a nineteen-year-old student in
Berlin. Despite this auspicious beginning, his architectural career did not take off immediately
and for a while he worked as a landscape artist and theatre-set designer. Towards the end of
the first decade of the nineteenth century he began submitting architectural designs for great
public works, and, in 1810, he secured a job with the administration of Prussian buildings.
In 1815 he was given a position in the new Public Works Department, and during the
years between 1815 and 1830 he designed some of his most renowned buildings such as
the Grecian-style
Neue Wache
(see p.47), the elegant
Schauspielhaus
(see p.48) and
the
Altes Museum
(see p.56) with its striking Doric columns: all vital to enhancing the
ever-expanding capital of Brandenburg-Prussia. Later in his career Schinkel experimented
with other architectural forms, a phase marked by the Romanesque
Charlottenhof
in
Potsdam (see p.172).
