Churches, Churches, and more Churches

Yesterday we traveled near Alexanderplatz and the surrounding areas, to see the historic architecture that is still standing. We saw mostly churches that had been built in the 13th century and had been preserved and renovated later. The first place we saw was the Nicholaikirche, which has since been turned into a museum. Outside of the church there was a statue of a Bear, which we have come to see many of since arriving. Bear statues are everywhere in Berlin, and its sort of like their mascot. The reason it is a bear is dissputed, by many people, some believe that it came from a misspronounciation of Berlin as 'Bear-lin', while most historians believe that is is because of Albrecht I. Albrech I's nickname was 'The Bear' and he was well know throughout Berlin as a great warrior. Anyway the Nicholaikirche had vaulted ceilings and many interesting sculptures throughout it.

Nearby was the ruins of the Franciscan Cloister Church, which contained many sculptures as well, and had a statue of Jesus on the cross at the gates. I found this to be interesting because it wasthe german interpritation of how Jesus looked which was different then the typical Jesus we see at home. Also as we were walking we were able to see a nice exterior view of the Berlin Rathaus.

After this we stopped for lunch, and I had fish and chips german style, which was pretty good. Our next stop was St. Mary’s Church, which was by far my favorite church we saw the entire day, we could see it from a distance as we approached it. Close up you can really see how massive it really is, because the size is overwhelming when you approach the doors. Inside was amazing, it had high vaulted ceilings as well, and a long processional leading to the front. There were sculptures of angels everywhere and many gold embellishments, the organ which is behind you when you enter is also just as magnificent. I also loved the paintings on the walls depicting Bible stories, some paintings had multiple parts of the story all in one, which was cool to see the way that it was represented.

Friedrichswerdersche Kirche was kind of a funny looking building I thought, but I really enjoyed the sculptures on the inside. Many you could tell where broken and had had some of their parts redone. There were also many hand drawing of the original plans and sections in frames around the building, which was neat to see how precise their drawings had to be back then, for the building to actually be built. So far I have really liked the high ceilings that all the churches seem to have, they just make the building feel more important.