You can see the beautiful tower of Berlin Cathedral from anywhere in the city. It is a big part of the skyline. You should give yourself at least two hours to fully enjoy one of the most important buildings in Germany.

A Walk Through Time

From the Middle Ages until now, the neo-Renaissance Berlin Cathedral has been fixed up and changed into a better church. It all began in 1465 with the building of a small parish church next to the Spree. The church was changed in 1539 to follow Martin Luther’s Lutheran teachings. The bodies were then carefully moved from the crypt when Frederick the Great ordered a new Baroque building to be built between 1747 and 1750. The old, broken-down building was then torn down.

The new neoclassical church was planned and built by builder Karl Friedrich Schinkel from 1820 to 1822. More changes were made to the church by order of Kaiser Wilhelm II before it was finished in 1905. After the Allies destroyed it during World War II, work to rebuild it began in 1975. This is the church that you see today.

We saw the Berlin Cathedral Today

This beautiful building is on Museum Island in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood. People can still go to church and sit in the pews while services are going on. The baptismal and wedding chapels, the royal stairs, the gold altar, and the organ with its more than 7,000 pipes are all things to look at. In the Hohenzollern crypt below the church, you can find almost 100 skeletons from the early 1600s. The church and its museum both have a small fee to enter.

It is worth the walk to see the dome on top of the church. Outside, there is a path that lets you see Museum Island, the church, Gendarmenmarkt, and the Reichstag very well. This place is great for photographers because it lets them see things from a different angle. But be careful, because the last part of the climb is not very long. Some even call it the catwalk.

Are you getting ready to go to Berlin? In the middle of Berlin, our list shows you the best places to stay.