The story of this place
Between 1830 and 1930 the Prussian kings raised five monumental museums on a Spree island to house the spoils of Germany's archaeological ambitions. The Pergamon Museum reassembled the colossal Pergamon Altar and the tiled Ishtar Gate of Babylon; the Neues Museum holds the 3,300-year-old bust of Nefertiti, unearthed by German diggers in 1912. Allied bombing wrecked the complex in 1945, and the Red Army carried off treasures as war booty, some never returned. Restoration stretched across the reunified decades, with David Chipperfield's rebuilt Neues Museum opening only in 2009. The ensemble was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.