Brandenburg Gate

Carl Gotthard Langhans
1791




The city's most famous symbol

Originally Berlin had 15 city gates, this gateway facing toward the city of Brandenburg. This classical design, though enlarged, was borrowed from the Propylaia on the Acropolis in Athens. The gate has a double colonnade with 12 fluted Doric columns, six on each side; thus there are five passageways. Originally only the two outside passageways were open to the public while the central opening with an eighteen foot high gate was reserved for royalty and triumphal passages. The columns are 44 feet high and 3 feet 8 inches in diameter. The new gate was originally named the Peace Gate or Friedenstor and the goddess in the chariot is Eirene, the goddess of peace. (Some sources identify the goddess as Victory.)During World War Two, the Gate was seriously damaged but it was restored at the beginning of the 21st century. (It was next to the Berlin Wall during the time Berlin was divided so it was not accessible.)
 
 

The quadriga by Johann Gottfried Schadow (complete cast replica of the original)

 

Metopes with battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs

This is the subject depicted on the metopes of the Parthenon.




Works Consulted or Quoted:
Rainer Haubrich et al. Berlin: The Architecture Guide. Braun Publishing, 2016. (German first edition, 2001)
Michael Imhof and Leon Krempel. Berlin. New Architecture: A Guide to the new Buildings from 1989 to today. Michael Imhof Verlag, 2012.
C. Knight. The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Vol. 4, 296.


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© 2017 Mary Ann Sullivan. I have photographed (on site) and manipulated all the images on these pages. Please feel free to use them for personal or educational purposes. They are not available for commercial purposes.