Alte Nationalgalerie

The Alte Nationalgalerie on Berlin's Museumsinsel is a neoclassical temple-form building designed by Friedrich August Stüler and opened in 1876 with the dedication 'Der Deutschen Kunst' — To German Art — carved above the entrance portico. Stüler drew deliberately on the language of ancient Corinthian temples to elevate art to near-sacred status, though he died in 1865 and never saw the building completed. The collection centers on 19th-century European painting: Caspar David Friedrich's fog-laden Romantic landscapes, Adolph Menzel's precise scenes of Prussian society, Nazarene religious works, and early Impressionism including Renoir. Badly damaged in World War II and left to deteriorate during the GDR decades, the building reopened in 2001 after an extensive restoration. Today around 450 works fill thematically arranged galleries alongside sculptures by Gottfried Schadow.