St. Marienkirche

St. Marienkirche stands near Alexanderplatz, surrounded by the high-rises of East Berlin with the Fernsehturm close by. Its roots reach back to the thirteenth century, making it one of Berlin's oldest churches alongside the Nikolaikirche. You can read the age in the masonry: granite and fieldstone in the oldest parts, red brick elsewhere. That brick belongs to the local Brick Gothic tradition, a long hall with three naves. Inside, wide arches and arcades open the room up despite the low ceilings.

Faith and taste have both reshaped the building over the centuries. Founded as a Roman Catholic church, it turned Protestant in 1539 during the Reformation. The hall plan itself follows the churches of the mendicant orders, the fashionable model when the first stones were set. Michael Mathias Smids gave the tower its Baroque form in 1663. In 1789 Carl Gotthard Langhans, the architect of the Brandenburg Gate, added a Neo-Gothic overhaul. Wartime damage in the Second World War brought fresh restorations, and the church remains a working parish.

The Dance of Death fresco, painted around 1484, shows death leading people of every station in a dance. It stands as a memorial to the frequent plagues of the medieval era. Nearby, the monumental tomb of Otto Christoph von Sparr carries the signature of the Flemish sculptor Artus Quellinus the Elder. A carved wooden retable from around 1510 completes the picture. And a bronze baptismal font from 1437 rests on the backs of three black dragons.