Franziskanerkloster Ruine

Right across from my hotel in Alexanderplatz sat the oldest building in Berlin: the remains of a Franciscan monastery from the 13th century that was the first outpost/settlement of the town by the Margrave of Brandenburg. There was a roughly simultaneous settlement on the nearby island in the Spree River that is now Museum Island, but that has been razed and built over so many times that nothing remains. This gothic church was built out of mud brick instead of the sandstone and limestone found in other gothic churches because that was what they had to work with in the exceedingly swampy environs of Brandenburg. The monastery buildings survived in various configurations until WWII, when everything was bombed to rubble but the northeast walls of the church. These were restored into a monument that now houses art installations of various kinds as well as the occasional concert.