Reading expands your mind, as can travel. The best part is, reading can expand and deepen your travels, whether you read before or after travel. After a recent trip to Berlin, I was reminded of this truth when I did some reading when I returned home.
When I visit a new area, I do like to plan an itinerary – though I consider blocking off a few hours to wander around photographing the city and finding random sights part of the ‘plan’. I love museums and guided tours, but I also enjoy having a few hours to just see what I can wander into. I’ve found interesting street art, delicious restaurants, and historical quarters that way. There is nothing quite like stumbling upon a significant building not mentioned on the “must see tour,” but which houses its own unique past and detail.
One of these recent ‘wanderings’ took place in Berlin. I had visited the city once before and had already taken tour of the grand sites. Before returning home from this trip, I had a few hours to fill, so I grabbed my camera and set out towards the “French Cathedral” behind the opera house in the Gendarmenmarkt, a beautiful town square dating back to 1688. This was a part of the city I’d heard offered a stunning hotel, something with a French name, and was a pretty area to walk through if you found the time. So I did. I discovered two stunning churches, one called the French Cathedral and the other the German Cathedral situated around a grand square with manicured trees and fountains surrounding it. Neither building was really a cathedral; neither was even Catholic. In my reading I later learned that in 1685, Elector Frederick William I offered the area – which at the time sat outside the historic city of Brandenburg – to Huguenots fleeing persecution in France. They settled in this area, which remains a French-speaking area of Berlin to this day. Churches were built and rebuilt, culminating in these grand structures which are used ecumenically as a show of religious tolerance. The French Cathedral hosts various Protestant services, and the German Cathedral houses a museum and stages theatrical performances. On my visit, a few tourists sat quietly on benches, enjoying a tranquil moment. It was a beautiful, quiet area; such a significant piece of history to discover -and I didn’t find it listed in a guide book or on a tour. It just happened to be a historically significant area in a city full of historic significance. Those moments of synchronicity are part of why I love travel, especially in Europe, where every part of the continent holds some sort of interesting history.
In my later reading, I learned a novel agreement between the king and the church was reached in the 1700s, because by that time the area was part of Berlin and Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia) wanted to remake the streets and and surrounding grounds into a beautiful square, aiming to rival the Piazza del Popolo in Rome. To build this impressive square, a deal was struck; the French Church gave up its cemetery in exchange for the right to use the new tower in perpetuity “free of charge”. This agreement remains in place today. It derives from the initial declaration that the land should always remain a refuge from religious persecution and therefore, the church continues to have final say over the land. I thought it significant that the declaration of this long-dead ruler in the 1600s was still being honored and that the church there continued to maintain its freedom. This was such a meaningful place to stumble upon!
This particular trip to Berlin was made more significant by reading Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novel, We, and feeling the bleak hopelessness of life under totalitarian rule. Even more so, after visiting the so-called French Cathedral and learning the land was set aside for the Huguenots way back in the seventeenth century – and today is a beautiful neo-Baroque church shared by multiple protestant churches, as well as a community event venue. When I look back on my travels in general, the single most illuminating choice has been to read up on the history of the area. Reading has made all the difference between seeing something that looks nice and understanding why it exists – even if I don’t fully read about it until after visiting a place.
Image: Vue du Marche de Gens d`Armes. Adolph, Martin. 1788.
