Unter den Linden Guide

Unter den Linden is the old royal road of Prussia, running about 1.5 kilometres east from the Brandenburg Gate to the bridge onto Museum Island. It is named for its lime trees, and it was the ceremonial heart of the kingdom, then the showpiece of East Berlin. The architecture is the draw: you can walk it as a single stroll and read two centuries of power in the facades.

1. Pariser Platz. Start at the Brandenburg Gate and walk east, past the Hotel Adlon and the embassies.
2. Russian Embassy. A large Stalinist-era complex on the left, built for the Soviet Union in the early 1950s.
3. Friedrichstraße crossing. The busiest junction on the boulevard, with a station on the U-Bahn, and the way south to Gendarmenmarkt.
4. Humboldt University and Bebelplatz. The university faces the square, where a glass panel in the cobbles shows an underground room of empty bookshelves, a memorial to the book burning of 1933. Stop here a while.
5. Neue Wache. A small neoclassical guardhouse by Schinkel, now a memorial to victims of war and tyranny, holding Käthe Kollwitz's sculpture of a mother with her dead son.
6. The Staatsoper and St Hedwig's Cathedral. The state opera house is one of the city's grandest, and the cathedral beside it has a distinctive round dome.
7. The Zeughaus. The old arsenal and home of the German Historical Museum. Its permanent exhibition is closed, so admire the baroque facade only.
8. Schlossbrücke. The bridge leads on to Museum Island, with the cathedral beyond.

When to walk it and what to skip

The boulevard works at any hour, but we like it early or at dusk, when the buildings are lit and the pavements empty. In summer, trees give shade, and in autumn the leaves turn it golden. It is a walk, not a destination for shopping: the souvenir shops and chain cafés near the gate can wait. If your legs are tired, hop on the bus along the street and get off at the university. The route also connects naturally to the Reichstag in the morning, then the museums after lunch.