Jewel Palais
The Jewel Palace is a building in the Berlin district of Mitte . The building, which was built in the neo-Gothic style, is on the opposite side of the Spittelmarkt from the Spittelmarkt, directly at the Gertraudenbrücke . The original course of Gertraudenstrasse can still be seen from its location .
history
The house designed by architects Max Jacob and Georg Roensch was built between 1894 and 1898. It was built for the merchant Wilhelm Müller, who ran a wholesale trade in gold there. Later it housed a clothing store, a music publisher and a wedding outfitter, among other things. During the GDR era, the German Gymnastics and Sports Association was also based there, while a gold and jewelery shop was still housed on the ground floor.
After German reunification , the entrepreneur Karlheinz Hurle bought the palace from the Federal Property Office and had the listed building renovated in 2002. The wooden windows were restored true to the original, natural stone tiles were laid on the ground floor and parquet floors were laid on the other floors. Some 27 layers of paint had to be removed from the existing tiles in the house.
After completion, the building was given the original name Juwel-Palais, based on its historical use . In 2007, a “wedding house” called a business and service center on the subject of weddings and a restaurant opened in the building.
particularities
On the south-west corner, which is sloping, there is a bronze architectural decoration. This shows a merchant standing on part of a knight's armor and holding up a protractor . A beehive can be seen underneath . The angle measuring device and beehive are also symbols of Freemasonry , although it is not clear whether this attitude can be attributed to the builder or the client.
The Juwel-Palais survived the Second World War largely unscathed and is today the only historical building still preserved on Spittelmarkt. In addition, it is the last so-called "three-gable house" in Berlin. From the time it was first used there are 16 safes - distributed throughout the house - some of which have been preserved.
See also
literature
- Katja Fischer: A jewel on the Gertraudenbrücke. In: Die Welt , March 5, 2003
- Marcel Gäding: Late Gothic splendor with a new name . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 11, 2002
- Uwe Aulich: From the ring to the cake . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 5, 2006
- Claudia Fuchs: Getting married made easy . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 14, 2007
Web links
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
- House Gertraudenstrasse 10/12 . In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 45.9 ″ N , 13 ° 24 ′ 10.1 ″ E