Heilig-Geist-Kapelle

The Heilig-Geist-Kapelle in Berlin goes back to around the year 1300, and it still stands among the city's oldest surviving buildings. It began as part of the Holy Spirit Hospital, founded in 1250 to care for the poor and sick. That complex brought together a house for the poor, a home for its staff and a large garden.

The chapel rises from a fieldstone foundation, and its brick walls are typical of the period. A roof tower came and went between the fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Inside, the sixteenth-century star vault still crowns the space you step into. Careful preservation has kept its medieval appearance despite the changes around it. Demolition plans surfaced early in the twentieth century: a business school wanted the ground. Local citizens fought the plans and won, so builders wrapped a new structure around it. The chapel then served as a lecture hall and even a school cafeteria.

The heart of Berlin holds the chapel, ringed by everything the city has added since. Extensive renovation in 2005 returned it to its former state, and wheelchair users reach the interior without barriers. It serves as a formal venue for Humboldt University, more than seven centuries after the hospital took in Berlin's poor.