Brandenburg Gate Germany

Legendary

This 18th century neoclassical monument is one of the best known landmarks in Germany.

Photo by Brian Dooley

Napoleon once marched through the Brandenburg Gate as a conqueror. He had its famous statue torn down and shipped all the way to Paris as a trophy of war.

The statue eventually came home. But the gate kept witnessing history, from Nazi parades to the fall of a wall that once nearly touched its columns.

King Frederick William II of Prussia ordered the gate built. He wanted Berlin's main entrance to look grand enough for a royal capital.

Architect Carl Gotthard Langhans designed it. He modeled the gate after a famous gateway in Athens, Greece, called the Propylaea.

Construction ran from 1788 to 1791. The finished gate stood about 66 feet tall, built from sandstone with twelve tall columns forming five passageways.

The middle passage was only for the royal family to use. In 1793, workers placed a bronze statue on top called the Quadriga, showing a goddess riding a chariot pulled by four horses.

When Napoleon's army took over Berlin in 1806, he had the statue taken down and hauled off to Paris. It didn't come back to Germany until 1814, after Napoleon lost power.

During the 1930s, the gate was used in Nazi parades and events. World War II bombing badly damaged it, and workers didn't finish repairing it until 1957 and 1958.

The Berlin Wall went up in 1961, cutting straight through the city. This left the Brandenburg Gate stuck in the empty space between East and West Berlin. For almost 30 years, no one could walk through it.

That changed in 1989, when the Berlin Wall finally came down. Thousands of people gathered right at the gate to celebrate, turning it into a symbol of a reunited Germany.

Stand beneath the tall columns and look up at the statue glinting above. Walk the famous street the gate opens onto, called Unter den Linden. Visit at night, when the gate lights up and the crowds are smaller.