Berliner Kuppeln

from left to right: Berliner Dom, Berliner Schloss, Gendarmenmarkt, St. Hedwig's Cathedral

Soon Berlin will have a new feature added to its skyline: the cupola of the rebuilt "Berliner Schloss" rising in the background surrounded by cranes. 

Cupolas are fascinating architectural elements - on vacations my young sons as aspiring engineers had to climb up any dome. We have been up the stairs in Il Duomo of Florence's cupola, on St. Peter's in the Vatican and in London's St. Paul's Cathedral to find out how they were constructed. Cupolas give stateliness and importance, and possibly the imagination of a protecting sky above your head, like a bishop's mitre, and the hemispheres of sun and moon and earth and possibly the universe all in one and on top of your house - it must be a blessing!  

Berlin's skyline is rather boring due to the fluvial sands in the underground. For decades nothing taller than 25m was allowed (with one or two ugly exceptions..).  Still, Berlin has more of these domes than I thought. Here is a selection: 

 The Bode Museum - from outside and inside

 Gendarmenmarkt from the distance,  stuck between GDR architecture of Leipziger Straße. 

the most beautiful cupola of the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Straße

St. Hedwig's Cathedral from inside

reflection of Berlin's Dom

I would even add the Sony Centre on Potsdamer Platz, which rises out of the skyline like a slightly tilted dome - hm, maybe more like a tent ...

Last but not least: the Reichstag. Unusual in its transparency, lightness and accessability, it is a symbol of democracy, where everybody can enter, look in, look out, walk around and move on all levels.