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Curiosity always seems to get the best of me!
Spying a church steeple down the street while walking back from the East Side Gallery in Berlin, I found my feet turning automatically in that direction.
Not wanting to miss something good, even though I was trying to make it back to my hotel for my dinner plans, I thought, “Just a quick look“.
Though the church’s interior wasn’t open for inspection, I did learn quite a bit about the property from the signboards posted at the front and back of the church’s property.
This was more than a church…this was about an entire square.
Architect August Soller, whose grave can be spied at St. Michael’s, was tapped to design the city’s third oldest Roman Catholic church. With plans completed in 1845, construction commenced six years later with much influence from Soller’s travels in Italy; mainly churches in Padua and Venice. So, when you spy St. Michael’s, as it was originally meant to be seen, with its view beyond the water feature (the remains of the Luisenstadt Canal) its conception from Venice’s churches along their waterways can be understood, as I was about to discover.
Completed in 1861, St. Michael’s served as a garrison church for Catholic soldiers due to its location near the border between Berlin-Mitte locality and Kreuzberg and was established by King Frederick William IV. After damage during World War II, it was partially reconstructed in the 1950’s. Now protected as a historical monument in Berlin, you can still see the wounds it sustained during the “Bombing of Berlin”, as you walk around the exterior of the church.
Though the church’s original walls and dome remain, the roof and the interior, including its organ, was destroyed. As I stood before the church’s entrance, it was amazing to be able to see the surviving dome through the portal window below the bell tower. Beneath the window is a mosaic depicting the Annunciation which surprisingly survived the bombing along with the church’s facade and entrance.
Long before the church’s completion, an idea to build a waterway through Luisenstadt was conceived. The idea was shelved until 1840, when the King of Prussia made the decision that a canal should connect the Landwehrkanal and the River Spree to reduce travel on the latter. With construction beginning in 1948, the first ship sailed along the waterway, passing St. Michael’s church in 1952, before turning at Engelbecken, the canal basin.
Despite the King’s determination in fulfilling the canal project, many years later, in 1926, the decision to fill in the Luisenstädt Canal was made due to noise, odor and lack of use. The Engelbecken, was then developed as a park under the guidance of landscape architect Erwin Barth. Though Barth’s main desire was to keep the canal, an idea not popular with the city’s government, he finally succeeded in developing the Engelbecken, surrounded by a green space. The canal basin became the Angel’s pool, a pond for swans surrounded by gardens.
Making my way across the Michaelkirchplatz, I stood on the raised viewing platform, anxious for a better look at the church, however, looking down at the Angel’s pool and the adjacent garden’s I anxiously searched for the steps leading to the area.
Cafe Am Engelbecken sits at the canal’s original water level, a relaxing spot to take in an afternoon tea or aperitif. Walking along the pool, lined with hedges and greenery, I glanced across at the picturesque and precise buildings which spread out along the perimeter. Pergolas hover above the path, awaiting the new growth of the warmer weather and I could only imagine how beautiful my walk would be during the summer when the Virginia creeper, climbing ross and clematis cling tightly to the structures. Arriving at the far end of the pool, it was then that I understood Soller’s idea of St. Michael’s position on a waterway, much like the Venetian churches.
This is the best view of St. Michael’s church!
The rose gardens, destroyed by the construction of the Berlin Wall, were excavated in 1993 by the Berlin Historic Gardens Conservation and a path runs down past the Oranienplatz between both Legiendamm and Leuschnerdamm. The path is highlighted by the Indische Brunnen, an eastern-style fountain also called the Hindu Springs. Although I exited at Oranienplatz, the path continues all the way down to Böcklerpark.
My detour to St. Michael’s church was definitely worth the eventual mad dash to my dinner plans. Very interested to learn about its and the surrounding area’s history, I now have another mission to see the interior of this historic church, which probably will not warrant, just a quick look!
I’m blocking off the whole afternoon!
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St. Michael’s Church and St. Michaelkirchplatz
- Address: Michaelkirchpl. 15, 10179 Berlin, Germany
- Hours: Park open 24 hours, church hours unknown
- Admission: free
- Getting There: Metro, Heinrich-Heine-Strasse and Kottbusser Tor stations