Berlin 3

At the heart of Berlin is the 'museum island' of Museumsinsel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. All these years after re-unification and the buildings are still being renovated while the East and West Berlin collections are being pieced back together.

There are five museums, the Altes (Classical antiquities), Neues (mainly Egyptian artefacts), Alte Nationalgalerie (19th Century art), Pergamon Museum (ancient Middle East) and Bode Museum (sculpture). We visited only the latter two and I think the ticket seller was miffed that we had passed on the newly rebuilt Neues Museum which is packing in so many crowds that visitors are allocated a timed entry. Maybe next time?

The Pergamon Museum is a bit like a theme park for ancient architecture, with several huge setpieces where it feels you have travelled thousands of years back in time. The namesake of the museum is the Pergamon Altar, a Greek temple built nearly 2200 years ago in what is now Turkey. These days its steps are a handy spot for pouting Eurotrash teens to congregate en masse.

Similar in some ways to the Acropolis in Athens, there is a distinct difference in scultpural styles. In the waning days of the Greek influence on the Mediterranean, the stripped-down and idealised Classical forms were replaced by Hellenistic fashions. Just look at all the curls, the drapery and the tortured poses.

Another highlight of the museum is the Gate of Miletus from Roman times, where again visitors have the opportunity of walking around buildings which are thousands of years old.

Most stunning of all are the blue gates dedicated to the goddess Ishtar, dating from the reign of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II about 2600 years ago in what is now Iraq.

The glazed bricks are decorated with wild bulls, slender dragons and even unicorns while a procession of 120 lions stretch about 90 feet away from the ceremonial entrance.

As impressive as the gate stands at nearly 50 feet high, this is only the shorter of the pair of gates that stood in the middle of ancient Babylon.

The much larger inner gate remains in storage, too large for the museum to rebuild. In addition, the original processional way was about a half mile long.

This illustration gives some indication of the structure.

Plenty more sculpture and carvings are found in nearby rooms, although overall we found the museum fairly compact and well worth the admission price.

 

On to the Bode Museum, a gorgeous domed palace sat at the tip of the island. Stuffed with sculpture and altarpieces, the museum's main focus is religious art.
 
For anyone more used to the stark interiors of English churches, it is a novelty seeing such colourful and extravagant devotional pieces, but after awhile we were overwhelmed by the sheer number of fat babies and tortured saints (St Vitus cooked in a pot, St Bartholomew flayed, Mary Magadelene clothed in her own matted hair during her years in the wilderness, etc etc).

Still worth a look if you have the energy, because there are also an abundance of beautiful artworks throughout the building.