Church of St. Nicholas in Potsdam

Potsdam was the site of Schinkel's first realization, when in 1801 he completed the romantic pavilion on the Pfingstberg hill. As Chief Construction Councilor, Schinkel was responsible for the stylistic optimization of all public buildings in the Prussian kingdom, and we can encounter his buildings in dozens of cities. However, Potsdam, immediately after Berlin, occupies a unique position, as Schinkel significantly expanded the summer residence of the Prussian kings, Sanssouci, with additional palace buildings. The Neoclassical St. Nicholas Church in the historic center of Potsdam can be considered the crowning work, concluding Schinkel's rich oeuvre. After completing the Potsdam church, Schinkel’s health deteriorated significantly, preventing him from further full-scale projects. Although Schinkel was at the peak of his career from 1838, holding the position of Chief State Building Director and Royal Architect, most of his grand projects to Greece and Crimea remained only on paper. Regardless of the fact that Schinkel's late work began to lean towards eclectic Neo-Gothicism, St. Nicholas Church retained classical elements and, moreover, one primacy. Schinkel was fascinated by domes throughout his life, but he himself did not have the opportunity to realize them, achieving it only in the central hall of the Altes Museum (1823-30), where, however, the structure remained hidden from external views, while the dome dominates the Potsdam church. Schinkel designed several variants of dome roofing, but the then King Frederick William III approved a project with a slightly sloped roof and only an internal wooden ball finial. The incoming King Frederick William IV ultimately issued a decision in 1843 allowing the church to be capped with a drum dome reaching a height of 77 meters, entrusting the challenging project to Schinkel's students Ludwig Persius (1843-45) and Friedrich Stüler (1845-50).
In the history at the site of today's Evangelical St. Nicholas Church in Potsdam, a number of sacred buildings had already stood since the Middle Ages, continuously changing their appearance. The church is located on the Am Alten Markt square (At the Old Market), where townhouses, a palace, and a town hall also stand. During the reconstruction of the tower, a massive fire engulfed the church on September 3, 1795, leaving only the facade standing, while the remaining stone was used for the construction of local barracks. The following year, King Frederick William II approached builder M.P. Boumann, who submitted a Rococo proposal. At the same time, the young architect Friedrich Gilly came up with a Neoclassical solution that could be compared to the contemporary leading French Enlightenment architects. However, in 1797, the king died. Soon after, Gilly and Boumann also passed away, and the project was forgotten for three decades until revived by Gilly's student K.F. Schinkel, who, however, attached a dome to the design that was not implemented in the first phase.
The construction of the church began on September 3, 1830, exactly 35 years after the fire, during a ceremony to lay the foundation stone, and after seven years, on September 17, 1837, the church was consecrated, although Schinkel did not receive an invitation. In the second phase, which Schinkel did not live to see, a quartet of corner towers was added to the church, and the surrounding barrel vaults were reinforced to support the weight of the new dome. Schinkel originally planned a wooden dome, but his students used cast iron for the construction (with a diameter of 24m and a height of 13m). The original relief in the tympanum was created according to Schinkel's design by sculptor August Kiß. However, during the reconstruction of the church, the upper tympanum had to be removed and found new use at Constantine's Basilica in Trier. The cast-iron dome was completed in 1847, and the church was consecrated for the second time in March 1850.
During World War II, the church was severely damaged by British air raids and Soviet artillery fire in April 1945, causing the dome and entrance portal to collapse. After the war, a panel housing estate surrounded the church, and a lengthy reconstruction began. The first phase was completed in 1955 when a 47-ton steel structure for the outer dome was installed on the roof. Further work took place in the 1960s and 1970s, and on May 2, 1981, the church was consecrated for the third time. The final reconstruction work on the church took place only after the reunification of Germany and was completed in 2010 as part of the gradual restoration of Potsdam's historic center.