Brandenburger Tor

This triumphal arch -- now restored -- stands in the very heart of Berlin and once was the symbol of the divided city. In the heyday of East Germany, the structure was integrated into the Berlin Wall, which followed a north-south axis as it made its wicked way to the Potsdamer Platz. Six Doric columns hold up an entablature that was inspired by the Propylaea of the Parthenon at Athens. Surrounded by the famous and much-photographed Quadriga of Gottfried Schadow from 1793, the gate was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans in 1789. Napoleon liked the original Quadriga so much he ordered them taken down and shipped to Paris, but they were returned to Berlin in 1814. In Berlin's heyday before World War II, the gate marked the grand western extremity of the "main street," Unter den Linden. In the Room of Silence, built into one of the guardhouses, visitors still gather to meditate and reflect on Germany's past.

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