Page 75 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Germany

EASTERN CENTRE  73

1 Brandenburger
WESTERN
Tor
CENTRE
Brandenburg Gate
Pariser Platz. Map 4 A2.  & 
EASTERN
CENTRE Brandenburger Tor. @ 100. Museum:
Open 10am–6pm Tues–Sun.
8 . Zeughaus (Deutsches The Brandenburg Gate is the
Historisches Museum) Locator Map quintessential symbol of Berlin.
Minerva, goddess of wisdom, See Street Finder maps 1, 4 & 5. A magnificent Neo-Classical
decorates this beautiful structure, based on the entrance
Baroque building, to the Acropolis, it was built
which has a wing between 1788 and 1791, with its
designed by I M Pei. sculptured decorations added in
1795. A pair of pavilions, once
used by guards and customs
officers, frames its powerful Doric
colonnade and entab lature. The
bas-reliefs depict scenes from
Greek mythology and the whole
structure is crowned by Johann
Gottfried Schadow’s famous
sculpture, Quadriga. In 1806,
during the French occupation,
Napoleon had the sculpture
7 . Neue Wache dismantled and taken to Paris.
Now serving as a memorial On its triumphal return in 1814, it
to all victims of war and
dictatorship, this monument was declared a symbol of victory,
was designed by Karl and the goddess received a staff
Friedrich Schinkel. bearing the Prussian eagle and
an iron cross with a laurel wreath.
Throughout its history, the gate
has witnessed many of Berlin’s
important events. Located in
East Berlin, the gate was restored
between 1956 and 1958, when
the damaged Quadriga was
rebuilt in West Berlin. Over the
Rotes next 40 years it watched over the
H I N T E R
Rathaus divided city, until 1989, when the
first section of the Berlin Wall fell.
D E R
K In 2016 a museum opened
next to the gate, offering an
impressive multimedia excursion
through Berlin’s history.
A T H , K I R C H E

Staatsoper Unter
den Linden

4 St-Hedwigs-Kathedrale
Bas-reliefs (1837) by Kronprinzenpalais
Theodore Wilhelm A magnificent portal from the
Achtermann adorn the dismantled Bauakademie building Frieze and sculpture, Quadriga, on the
cathedral’s supports. can be found at the rear of the palace. Brandenburg Gate

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