When I was in Berlin in mid-September, on a work trip, the office was close to the Museumsinsel, a series of museums on an island in the river that runs through Berlin.
I bought a 3-day pass, and although the museums shut at 6 most nights, I was able to spend a bit of time in them at the end of the day.
The main attraction is the Pergamon Museum. This is one I went to on my initial visit to Berlin, aged 18 and on a ‘culture vulture’ trip with my German penfriend. I’d just finished A-Level Latin, and the highlight for me then was the huge Roman frieze, part original, part reconstruction.
It’s the first thing you see when you go in, and it gives you some sense of what temples and other official buildings must have been like. The stairs up to the top are very steep, but you can also see the frieze from lower down. I probably spent a whole hour in that room the first time.
A few years later, when I was working in Poland, Dan came out to see me, and spent some time in Berlin on the way back. He too went to Pergamon, and loved it.
I think we first went there together at Easter 2002. There’s also art covering other civilisations, including a reconstruction of the Ishtar gate (Babelonian) and lots of Islamic art. One part has a reconstructed room from the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.
I knew this time I would only have time for the hightlights, so: back to the frieze, to the Ishtar Gate, and a quick sweep round the Islamic section. This time, there was a photo exhibition of Turkmenistan, up the stairs to the Islamic section, which was also great: beautiful colours in people’s costumes and homes.
My next day, I went to the Altes Museum, one of the museums I hadn’t visited before. Its treasures are its ‘Greek boy’, a bronze statue of a boy in prayer, and a mask of Nefertiti. So, with the minutes ticking past, I managed to see both. The mask was really amazing, but probably more so for having had a look at other sculptures in the Egyptian section first. Some of the most unusual ones were of families – the children are shown in minature on the lap of either parent.
The museums are due for a big face-lift and restoration is underway on the five different buildings. To see more, have a look at the websites for each above, or here for a picture of Nefertiti herself.