Schloßbrücke

You can feel the drama in the Schloßbrücke before you even fix on its statues: this is not a bridge that only connects two banks of the Spree, it was built into—quite literally—into the stress points of royal politics, military memory, and urban planning.

A bridge designed to lead you

Work began in 1821 and the bridge was completed between 1821 and 1824, based on plans by the court architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. It was ordered in the early 19th century by Frederick William III of Prussia, who found the existing wooden crossing inadequate. The result was a new prestigious stone bridge: a monumental, three-arched structure built of sandstone, engineered to carry the broad line of Unter den Linden all the way to the western city limits at the Brandenburg Gate. Schinkel’s remit went beyond the span. The project refurbished the ceremonial approach along Unter den Linden between the Spree and what is now Bebelplatz, and it also extended eastward to the Lustgarten—while Neue Wache was designed to commemorate the veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. In other words, the bridge was treated as part of a single, intentional route: architecture choreographing movement for the state.