Reichstag Building & Dome
Germany's parliament building, topped by Norman Foster's glass dome — free to visit with mandatory advance registration, and one of the best panoramic views in central Berlin.
Gendarmenmarkt
Widely considered Berlin's most beautiful square — the German and French Cathedrals face each other across the neoclassical Konzerthaus, with a climbable dome and one of the city's best Christmas markets.
Charlottenburg Palace
Berlin's largest surviving royal palace — a Baroque and Rococo complex with formal gardens modelled on Versailles, built for Sophie Charlotte, the philosopher-queen of Prussia.
Olympiastadion Berlin
The 1936 Olympics stadium — a monumental piece of Nazi-era architecture still in active use today as Hertha BSC's home ground and Germany's largest football stadium.
Berlin TV Tower (Fernsehturm)
The tallest structure in Germany — a 368-metre Cold War-era TV tower with a rotating restaurant and an observation deck that gives the best 360-degree view over Berlin.
Victory Column (Siegessäule)
A gilded 67-metre column at the heart of the Tiergarten commemorating 19th-century Prussian military victories — climb 285 steps for one of the best free-standing views over the park and government quarter.
Zoo Berlin
Germany's oldest zoo and one of the most species-rich in the world, entered through an ornate Chinese-style Elephant Gate right by Zoo Station.
Potsdamer Platz
Once Europe's busiest traffic intersection, then a Cold War death-strip wasteland, now a glass-and-steel corporate district — Berlin's most dramatic before-and-after story, told through architecture.