Parochial Church (Parochialkirche)

In front of you is the Parochialkirche, the church of Berlin's Reformed congregation. From the outside it looks like just another baroque church. The extraordinary part is under your feet.

1An accident-prone church

King Frederick I, then still Elector Frederick III, laid the foundation stone in 1695. His architect, Johann Arnold Nering, died that same year, and in 1698 the nearly finished vault came crashing down. The church was finally consecrated in 1703. An incendiary bomb gutted it on 29 May 1944, which is why its interior walls look bare today.

2The crypt of the mummies

Beneath the church lies a large crypt with dozens of burial chambers, which still keeps original baroque wooden doors. Well-to-do families were buried here in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thanks to a highly effective ventilation system, the cool, dry air naturally mummified many of the bodies. In 2000 and 2001, a team of specialists examined the coffins and recorded dozens of complete or partial mummies, in very different states of preservation.

Nobody set out to make mummies: it was the draught of air, not any ritual, that preserved them.

3The tower that roared

In 1715 a famous carillon began to ring out from the tower, which Berliners called the “Singuhr”, the singing clock. According to the chronicles, each tune ended with the roar of the tower's stone lions. It was lost in 1944; the tower and a new carillon were inaugurated in 2016.

4What to look for

• The tower, rebuilt in 2016 with its carillon.
• The parish churchyard, one of the oldest in Berlin.
• The unplastered interior walls, a scar from the 1944 fire.