Friedrichswerder Church, Gothic Revival church museum in Mitte district, Berlin, Germany.
Friedrichswerder Church is a single-nave brick church by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, built 1824–1831. Its red brick facade has two pointed-arch portals framed by layered brick arches with slender columns and a lobed circular window above each; between them stands a dark bronze winged figure with a spear on a dragon. Inside, reddish-brown vault panels are divided by pale stone ribs, clustered columns carry pointed arches, and the floor is a red-and-pale checkerboard.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed this church between 1824 and 1831 as Berlin's first neo-Gothic religious building, drawing inspiration from English chapel architecture. The project marked a turning point in Prussian architecture and demonstrated new directions in 19th-century church design.
Since 2019 the church has housed 19th-century German sculptures from the Alte Nationalgalerie, with works by Johann Gottfried Schadow, Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Christian Daniel Rauch. The upper floor holds an exhibition on Schinkel's life and work. A blue banner reading "DIE PRINZESSINNENGRUPPE" points to Schadow's model of the Prussian princesses Luise and Friederike.
The church stands at Werderscher Markt in Berlin-Mitte, a short walk from the Spree and the Humboldt Forum. The entrance is through the left pointed-arch portal on the brick facade; the right doorway is closed. Inside, the sculpture collection fills the ground floor and a Schinkel exhibition occupies the upper floor.
The church's two brick portals carry a dark bronze winged figure with a spear standing on a dragon, placed above and between the doorways. The right doorway's double doors are cast with five round relief panels stacked vertically, a detail easily missed when the left door stands open.
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