Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin

Gendarmenmarkt is a grand Berlin square whose architectural ensemble brings together a concert hall and two domed churches. Its story begins in 1688, when Johann Arnold Nering laid it out as a marketplace in the expanding Friedrichstadt. The name recalls a Prussian cuirassier regiment whose stables once occupied this site.

At the heart of the square, a monumental statue honours the poet Friedrich Schiller. The concert hall occupies Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s former Schauspielhaus, completed in 1821 after fire destroyed the National Theatre. The French Church and German Church flank it with matching domed towers designed by Carl von Gontard and added in 1785.

Their names can mislead: neither church was ever a bishop’s seat, and “Dom” refers to the dome. War left the ensemble severely damaged, but the buildings were restored; the concert hall reopened in 1984, and the German Church returned in 1996 as a museum of German history. The square also hosts a much-loved Christmas market, giving this formal architectural setting a seasonal public life.