Germany > Berlin > Berlin > Reichstag Dome

Reichstag Dome

Our rating: 9.00

2011-06-07

http://www.bundestag.de

The Reichstag dome is the most visited attraction in Berlin. More than 8,000 tourists come here every day. Admission is free, but you must pre-register at the official website of the Bundestag. The dome can be called an informative observation deck. Thanks to it the German parliament is the most popular in the world. By the way, you can visit the Parliament itself during the meeting, just register at the website and take your passport.

We arrived at 8 am when there were only few tourists. But at 8:30 dozens of buses arrived. The last admission is at 10 pm. If you are in the dome at this time, you can enjoy night views of Berlin until midnight.

Before visiting you should go through the security scanners. Upstairs be sure to take audio guides. In contrast to all previously seen audioguides, these ones are automatic. The device will recognize where you are and turn on the required record.

There are two spiral ramps inside the dome. And they are made so cleverly that it's not clear how it works at the first sight, it seems that there's one ramp. You slowly go up, listening about the dome, the Reichstag and the objects on the horizon, and then go down.

A mirrored cone in the center is very interesting. It was made so that the sunlight reflects from it and falls into the main room of the parliament. Special software monitors the seasons and light intensity and adjusts the rotation of mirrors. This construction was invented by British architect Norman Foster, whose project won an international competition in 1995. Curiously, projects of German architects were not among the finalists. 600 million Deutsche marks was spend on full reconstruction of the Reichstag.

During the "cold war" the Berlin Wall used to stand not far from the Reichstag. All foreign politics rose to the Reichstag terrace, since the eastern part of the divided city was was visible from there.