Französischer Dom

Berlin, Germany

French Cathedral (Französischer Dom) is the colloquial naming for the French Church of Friedrichstadt. Louis Cayart and Abraham Quesnay built the first parts of the actual French Church from 1701 to 1705 for the Huguenot (Calvinist) community. At that time, Huguenots made up about 25% of Berlin's population. The French Church was modelled after the destroyed Huguenot temple in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, France.

In 1785 Carl von Gontard modified the church and built - wall to wall next to it - the domed tower, which - together with the French-speaking congregants - earned the church its naming. The domed tower is technically no part of the church, there is no access between church and tower, because both buildings have different proprietors. The tower, resembling that of Deutscher Dom, was simply built to give the Gendarmenmarkt a symmetric design. The former church Deutscher Dom, however, consists of church-building and tower as an entity.

In 1817 the French Church community, like most Prussian Calvinist, Reformed and Lutheran congregations joined the common umbrella organisation named Evangelical Church in Prussia (under this name since 1821), with each congregation maintaining its former denomination or adopting the new united denomination. The community of the French Church of Friedrichstadt maintained its Calvinist denomination.

Nevertheless, the congregation underwent already before the union of the Prussian Protestants a certain acculturation with Lutheran traditions: An organ was installed in 1753, competing with the Calvinist traditional mere singing. The singing of psalms was extended by hymns in 1791. The sober interior was refurbished in a more decorative - but still Calvinist aniconistic - style by Otto March in 1905. The beautiful organ has been played, among others, by Thomas Hawkes. Today's community is part of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia.

Französischer Dom was heavily damaged in World War II, then re-built from 1977 to 1981. Today it is not merely used by its congregations, but also for conventions by the Evangelical Church in Germany.

The church is not a cathedral in the strict sense of the word because it has never been the seat of a bishop.

The domed tower, which is a viewing platform open to visitors, provides a panoramic view of Berlin. A restaurant is located in the basement underneath the prayer hall. The tower also contains the Huguenot museum of Berlin.

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Details

Founded: 1701-1705
Category: Religious sites in Germany
Historical period: Thirty Years War & Rise of Prussia (Germany)

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Austin Opatrny (9 months ago)
Beautiful view, fun audioguide and staff, good value
Ohayō Phil (9 months ago)
amazing move to keep less plastic. Never seen anything like this with any trashbags. I hope this happens everywhere as well.
Marcus Hurley (9 months ago)
This is a review of the viewing platform of the church, rather than the Huguenot Museum within the church. We visited on a cold February lunchtime and had the place to ourselves. The climb is quite easy as the stairs are wide and open so there is no feeling of being cramped. The architecture inside is as beautiful as the outside appearance and the whole building exudes elegance without extravagance. As you climb there are information boards and then eventually you reach the door to walk around the outside of the tower. As you'd expect, the views were great and it was a lovely way to spend a lunch break.
Tommaso Preti (12 months ago)
I really liked the view on Berlin and the tags with the name of the monuments you can see from the dom.
Emily YEH (14 months ago)
Good introduction of the Freud refugees to Germany 300 years ago. Highly recommend if you are also interested in Christianity history.
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