Brandenburg Gate.

More than just an architectural landmark, the Brandenburg Gate is the ultimate physical anchor of Berlin’s turbulent history. Commissioned by Prussian King Frederick William II and completed in 1791, Carl Gotthard Langhans’s neoclassical sandstone triumph was modeled after Athens’ Propylaea, topped by Johann Gottfried Schadow’s famous Quadriga sculpture. Over the centuries, it evolved from a royal gateway into a backdrop for Napoleon’s conquests, Nazi parades, and the stark division of the Cold War, when it stood isolated in the death strip of the Berlin Wall. Today, anchoring the stately Pariser Platz at the end of Unter den Linden, the fully restored monument is a global symbol of German reunification. It remains completely open and free to walk through, best experienced illuminated at night.