Spandau

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Target Area Western Berlin

Citadel © BTM/Koch
Old Town © BTM/Koch
Facades of the Old Town © BTM/Koch

Spandau

Underground U7 and city-trains S5 and S75 open up Spandau, and also U2 advances into the east of the district.

Further information: www.tourist-information-spandau.de/a>

Website with photos of Spandau and surroundings: http://www.spandau-fotos.de.


Many of Berlin's districts have preserved their own character and a certain individuality. But a trip to Spandau actually is a trip into a different city, even if Spandau has been a district of Berlin since 1920. Heart of the colony is the Citadel dating back to the 16th century. Italian paragons have been sampled for the fending fortress on an island where the rivers Spree and Havel unite. Except for military purposes the citadel served as prison and treasury. Since it has been restored it is open to visitors.

Whereas the most quarters of Berlin are coined by Wilhelminian or modern architecture, Spandau's old town neighbouring the citadel recedes further into the past. The precursor of the Nikolai church, realized in North German clinker gothic, dates back into the time around 1200 as well as the first fortress buildings. The narrow, winded lanes set the scene for Europe's biggest christmas market every year. The district with its many watercourses and forests has a lot to offer in regards of landscape, too. Of course, also the modern times have left their traces in Spandau: Siemensstadt, Spandau's western offshoot, set the standards for social, architecturally worthy housebuilding with which the workers have been fetched from their overcrowded slums between the world wars.