Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church | |
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Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin | |
Berlin Cathedral seen from Lustgarten
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Basic information | |
Location | Cölln, a historical neighbourhood of Berlin, Germany |
Geographic coordinates | 52°31′9″N 13°24′4″E / 52.51917°N 13.40111°ECoordinates: 52°31′9″N 13°24′4″E / 52.51917°N 13.40111°E |
Affiliation |
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Province | Union of Evangelical Churches |
Year consecrated | 1454, as the Roman Catholic St. Erasmus Chapel |
Website | www |
Architectural description | |
Architect(s) |
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Architectural style |
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Completed |
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Construction cost | 11.5 million marks (1905) |
Specifications | |
Direction of façade | west |
Length | 114 metres (374 ft), shorter since the demolition of the northern memorial hall in 1975 |
Width | 74 metres (243 ft) |
Dome height (outer) | 115 metres (377 ft) (until destruction 1944) |
Materials | originally brick, since 1905, Silesian sandstone |
Berlin Cathedral (German: Berliner Dom) is the short name for the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church (German: Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin) in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough. The current building was finished in 1905 and is a main work of Historicist architecture of the "Kaiserzeit".
The Dom is the parish church of the congregation Gemeinde der Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin, a member of the umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The Berlin Cathedral has never been a cathedral in the actual sense of that term since it has never been the seat of a bishop. The bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (under this name 1945–2003) is based at St. Mary's Church and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.
The history of today's Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church and its community dates back to 1451. In that year Prince-Elector Frederick II Irontooth of Brandenburg moved with his residence from Brandenburg upon Havel to Cölln (today's Fishers' Island, the southern part of Museums Island) into the newly erected City Palace, which also housed a Catholic chapel. In 1454 Frederick Irontooth, after having returned – via Rome – from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, elevated the chapel to become a parish church, richly endowing it with relics and altars.Pope Nicholas V ordered Stephan Bodecker, then Prince-Bishop of Brandenburg, to consecrate the chapel to Erasmus of Formiae.