Pariser Platz
Prussia renamed this square after the enemy capital the day its troops marched in — 1814, still legible in every stone.
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Every regime from the Hohenzollerns to the GDR paraded troops down Unter den Linden to this square. World War II erased every building around it; the Brandenburg Gate was the sole structure left standing in the rubble. Everything visible today — the French and American embassies, the Adlon Hotel, the Academy of Arts — was rebuilt from scratch after reunification in 1990, under strict rules capping eaves at 22 metres.
What to look for
- The Brandenburg Gate, completed in the early 1790s by Carl Gotthard Langhans — the only building on the square to survive WWII bombardment
- Unter den Linden stretching east — the ceremonial axis down which armies from the Hohenzollerns to the GDR marched in triumph
- The Adlon Hotel, originally prewar Berlin's finest, reinstated after decades as rubble inside the Wall's death zone
The square is pedestrian-only and free to enter at any hour; the Gate itself can be walked through around the clock.
Pariser Platz is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Berlin, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Berlin pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Berlin
- Berlin WallBuilt to keep citizens in, not enemies out — and the death strip of anti-vehicle trenches and beds of nails makes that intent impossible to misread.
- Brandenburg GateFor 28 years a wall sealed it shut — now you walk straight through.
- ReichstagA fire in 1933, a battle in 1945, a dome in 1999 — you walk inside Germany's working parliament.
- Berlin Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion)Designed for the 1936 Olympics and still hosting European finals — the bowl has barely left the world stage.
- Pergamon MuseumThe Pergamon Altar and the collections of the Vorderasiatisches Museum once filled this hall — closed since 2023, with the North Wing returning in 2027.
- Fernsehturm BerlinA 368-metre Cold War statement that outlived the government that built it — and now stands for the city that absorbed it.