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The Dome in BerlinDedicated on February 27, 1905, it faces the Lustgarten (a city park) and the former site of the imperial palace, the Stadtschloss. Later the church of the Dominican Order (Schwarze Brüder), located at the south side of the castle, was used as the first cathedral. The first church at this site was a baroque cathedral by Johann Boumann, which was completed in 1747 and, in 1822, remodelled in the neoclassicist style by the Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. In 1894, on German Emperor Wilhelm II's order, this domed building was demolished and replaced by the current cathedral designed by Julius Raschdorff. At 114 metres (374 ft) long, 73 metres (240 ft) wide and 116 metres (381 ft) tall, it was much larger than any of the previous buildings and was considered a Protestant counterweight to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The pipe organ, built by Wilhelm Sauer, had 113 stops, including three ranks of 32' pipes on the pedal division, played by a 4-manual console.Evangelical Church in Germany, Berlin |