Dome

Context view from Reichstag rooftop; In 1787 Langhans moved to Berlin to assume the post of Director of the Royal Office of Buildings under Frederick William II, King of Prussia. His most famous work in the city is the Brandenburger Tor. Berlin’s first Greek Revival building, it is based on the Propylaea in Athens. It replaced a modest Baroque structure of 1734 and is the culmination of the progressively classicizing trend in Langhans’s architectural style. Langhans never visited Greece, and derived his knowledge of the Propylaea from J.-D. Le Roy, Ruines de plus beaux monuments de la Grèce (Paris, 1758). Atop the gate is the bronze Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory (originally Eirene goddess of peace), sculpted by Johann Gottfried Schadow. The Iron Cross was added after the Quadriga was returned to Berlin after having been plundered by Napoleon; ironically Napoleon had been the first to use the gate for a triumphal procession. The Gate was damaged in WWII and restored 2000-2002. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 7/10/2013)