Berlin Cathedral

The Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) is not actually a cathedral in the episcopal sense – it has never been the seat of a bishop. It’s a Protestant church, built as the principal place of worship for the Hohenzollern imperial family and completed in 1905, when the German Empire was at its political and symbolic peak. Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted something that could compete visually with St. Peter’s and the Hagia Sophia. The architect Julius Carl Raschdorff delivered a Baroque Revival dome at 114 metres that dominates Museum Island’s skyline and announces something about imperial ambition whether or not you go inside.

It was badly damaged in World War II bombing and sat partially ruined for decades before a 40-year restoration finally completed in 2002. The interior you see is a combination of original imperial-era work and careful postwar reconstruction, which is honest about what it is.

What to See

The imperial crypt beneath the nave is the most genuinely significant part of the building. Ninety-four sarcophagi of Hohenzollern rulers and their families are housed here, including Frederick I of Prussia (died 1713, the first Prussian king) and his wife Sophie Charlotte (who gave her name to Charlottenburg). The crypt provides a compressed history of the dynasty that created Prussia and unified Germany under its leadership. Entry to the crypt is included in the general admission.

The dome gallery is accessible via elevator and stairs. At 74 metres, it gives a good view across Museum Island and toward the Brandenburg Gate and Mitte district. The full observation level at the top of the dome is higher – the climb is around 270 steps – and the views are considerably better for the effort.

The interior mosaic programme was one of the most ambitious in late 19th-century German Protestant art: the ceiling of the baptismal chapel and the nave mosaics were designed and executed by artists whose names appear in most serious surveys of the period. Much of it survived the bombing and restoration largely intact.

Admission runs around €9 for adults. The Dom includes organ concerts on a regular schedule – the Sauer organ with 7,269 pipes is one of the largest in Germany, and the acoustic in the space is extraordinary.

Museum Island

Museum Island is the reason most visitors are in this part of Berlin anyway. The five museums on the island – Pergamon Museum (the Ishtar Gate and Pergamon Altar, currently partly closed for renovation), Neues Museum (the Nefertiti bust), Altes Museum (Greek and Roman antiquities), Bode Museum (Byzantine art and sculpture), and Alte Nationalgalerie (19th-century painting and sculpture) – represent an extraordinary concentration of material culture. A day pass for all five museums is available and worth buying if you’re spending a full day on the island.

Nearby

The cathedral is a 10-minute walk from Hackescher Markt, the centre of the Mitte neighbourhood’s restaurant and nightlife scene. For currywurst, the Berlin street food institution, Curry 36 in Mehringdamm is the standard reference – its location in Kreuzberg requires a short U-Bahn journey but the quality-to-queue ratio is considerably better than the tourist-facing options in Mitte.

Getting there: U2/U5/U8 to Alexanderplatz (10-minute walk), or the S-Bahn to Hackescher Markt (5-minute walk along the river).