Welcome to a unique tour of Berlin, where you’ll delve into the intricate history of this incredible city. Starting from this point, we embark on today’s exploration, guiding you to carefully selected highlights and lesser-known places.

So, get ready for a city exploration, tune in your ears, and let the echoes of the past transport you through ages gone by.

Our journey starts from the beginning of the city’s origins, back when this town was just a small river harbour. The building in front of which we stand, used to be one of the most majestic in the city, although today is mostly forgotten.

It is the old Franciscan Monastery, one of the city’s oldest structures. The monastery was founded around 1250, and the ruins you witness today, were part of a larger complex destroyed during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The Protestant Reformation caused extensive religious struggles between the Protestants and the Catholics all around Europe, spanning the 16th and 17th centuries, which did not leave the city unaffected. Especially in Germany, the Reformation took the form of a struggle against the political influence of the Pope in the region. Nevertheless, it wasn’t just one significant event to turn the structure in front of you into the current state of ruins.

What you observe today is a result of a much bigger disaster, one under which many other buildings we will see in our journey suffered: the air bombardments of Berlin during WWII.

Yet, through these ruins, we can imagine how life prospered in Berlin during the late Medieval time, an era when religion played a most significant role. The existence of such a large monastery, representing one of the most important monastic orders of the Catholic Church, also reveals to us the importance of the city at the time it was founded. Therefore, feel free to explore the premises of such a unique place, while we can talk a little bit more about the city’s origins.

Few know, even Berliners, that in the place where Berlin stands today, there were not one, but two twin cities: Berlin and Cölln. Although one could confuse the latter with another German city, the settlement of Cölln was as important as Berlin. As a matter of fact, Cölln was presumably founded seven years earlier, and first mentioned in 1237, whereas Berlin only in 1244. Cölln was built on Museum Island, the diachronic core of today’s centre that we’ll later explore. The two cities shared borders, wealth, friends and enemies. Even some of their institutions were separated for almost five centuries, from around 1250 until 1710, until Frederick The First of Prussia merged them into one. Interestingly, during the unification, Berlin was twice the size of Cölln, and it is this very reason that influenced the actual city’s nomenclature.

However, the name of Cölln still survives in the city! You may have heard of “Neukölln”, or “New Cölln”, one of Berlin’s most famous and newly gentrified boroughs.

And now, after this brief but meaningful introduction, you are now ready to carry on following new historical traces.

When you are ready, please follow the marked path on the map, and follow the route until reaching point number two. In just a few metres you’ll encounter another historical clue.

Ptolemy