Berlin Cathedral

Berlin Cathedral on Museum Island is Germany's largest Protestant church, a neo-Baroque dynastic showpiece commissioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II as a deliberate Protestant answer to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Designed by Julius Carl Raschdorff and consecrated in 1905, the building features a 98-metre dome and seating for more than 1,500 worshippers. Heavy wartime damage left the dome under makeshift patching for decades, and the East German government demolished the northern memorial church outright in 1975 before a full restoration was finally completed in 1993. Beneath the main nave, the Hohenzollern crypt holds over 90 sarcophagi of the Prussian royal house, including that of the Great Elector Frederick William. Visitors who climb the 267 steps to the dome gallery are rewarded with views over the Spree, Museum Island, and the TV tower; regular organ concerts make use of the cathedral's celebrated Sauer instrument.

High Renaissance cathedral on Museum Island with a 75 m drum dome and the Hohenzollern crypt below.