St. Mary's Church (Marienkirche)

In front of you is the Marienkirche, St. Mary's Church, surviving almost alone among modern blocks and the TV Tower. It was first recorded in 1292, and it holds two of the most unsettling memories of medieval Berlin.

1A murder and a city punished

Look next to the entrance: that small, worn stone cross is an atonement cross. In 1325, at the height of the struggle between pope and emperor, citizens of Berlin and Cölln murdered Nikolaus von Bernau, provost of Bernau and a supporter of the pope. As punishment, both towns were placed under interdict: masses and sacraments were forbidden. To be reconciled with the Church they had to do penance, and this cross is part of that atonement.

2The Dance of Death

Inside, beneath the tower, a fresco more than 22 metres long survives: a Totentanz, or Dance of Death. Figures from every social class, from the pope to the peasant, each dance with a skeleton. Researchers date it to around 1484, a year of plague. The verses accompanying it, in Low German, are the oldest surviving poetry in Berlin. It lay hidden under whitewash for centuries and was rediscovered in 1861.

No one escapes the dance: neither emperor nor beggar. That was the message for Berliners who had just buried their neighbours.

In 1964, Martin Luther King preached in this church, in East Berlin.

3What to look for

• The atonement cross, beside the west front.
• The tower, stone below, with a neo-Gothic spire added in 1789–1790.
• The Dance of Death, behind glass in the entrance hall, if the church is open.