Saint Mary's Cathedral

St. Mary's Cathedral in Fuerstenwalde on the Spree is the largest medieval brick church in eastern Brandenburg. The current building dates from the mid-15th century, a late Gothic hall church replacing an earlier structure from the 13th or 14th century. Until the Reformation, Fuerstenwalde was a bishop's see; the cathedral then turned Protestant and lost most of its decoration. The building burned out entirely in World War II, and reconstruction dragged on until 1995 because the GDR refused to allocate materials to a church. Today the interior is unusually bright, with a rebuilt star-vaulted ceiling and modern stained glass picking up the brick of the exterior walls. The massive tower is visible from the A12 motorway between Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder).