Berliner Dom

The Berliner Dom or Berlin Cathedral in Berlin, Germany was built in 1905 facing the Lustgarten and the Berlin City Palace).

The first church was built on the site in 1465 as the court chapel for the Hohenzollern family. A Baroque cathedral by Johann Boumann was completed in 1747 and later remodelled in the classicist style in 1822 by the Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

On German Emperor Wilhelm II's order, this domed building was demolished in 1894 and replaced by the current Cathedral designed by Julius Raschdorff . 114 m long and 73 m wide, it is much larger than any of the previous buildings and was considered a Protestant counterweight to the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

During the Second World War, the building was bombed by the Allies and severely damaged. A temporary roof was installed to protect what remained of the interior and in 1975 reconstruction started. The restoration of the interior was begun in 1984 and in 1993 the church reopened. During reconstruction, the original design was modified into a more simple form.

The Organ

External link

• Berlin Webcam with view to the Berlin Dom and the Palast der Republik