About this place
Rising over Pariser Platz at the western end of Unter den Linden, the Brandenburg Gate is the great ceremonial threshold of Berlin. Built between 1788 and 1791 for King Frederick William II to designs by Carl Gotthard Langhans, it was modelled on the Propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis and originally named the Gate of Peace. Two rows of Doric columns frame five passageways, and above the central one stands the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses driven by a goddess, sculpted by Johann Gottfried Schadow. The gate has witnessed nearly every chapter of the city's turbulent story: Napoleon paraded through it in triumph in 1806 and carried the Quadriga off to Paris, victorious Prussian troops marched home beneath it, and for twenty eight Cold War years it stood marooned in the Wall's death strip, unreachable from either side. When the Wall fell, the world watched Berliners dance here, and the gate became the very picture of a country made whole again.
Key facts
- 1791 year — Completed for King Frederick William II as the Gate of Peace
- 26 metres — The height of the gate, supported by two rows of Doric columns
- 28 years — It stood trapped in the Berlin Wall's death strip from 1961 to 1989
📍 Pariser Platz 1, 10117, Berlin