Gendarmenmarkt

Standing here on the Gendarmenmarkt, you're in what many consider the most beautiful square in Berlin. Two grand churches frame the space on either side, the Französischer Dom to your north and the Deutscher Dom to the south. They look like mirror images of each other, but step closer and each has its own character. Between them sits the Konzerthaus Berlin, a neoclassical concert hall designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the early 19th century. Schinkel was the architect who shaped much of Prussian Berlin, and this building is widely seen as one of his finest works.

The square itself goes back to the 1680s, when it served as the market place for the new district of Friedrichstadt. King Frederick I of Prussia brought it into the city and named it after the Gens d'Armes, a regiment of elite cavalry that kept their barracks and stables right here.

During the GDR era, East Germany's communist government quietly renamed it Platz der Akademie. After reunification in 1990, the old name came back.

The bronze figure standing in front of the Konzerthaus is Friedrich Schiller, Germany's beloved 18th-century poet and playwright. He's had a front-row seat to all of it. And in December, when the Christmas market fills the square with mulled wine and twinkling lights, even Schiller looks like he's enjoying himself.