MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

ART • • GASTRONOMY • ARCHAEOLOGY • HISTORY • MUSIC • LITERATURE

Berlin, , Art and architecture in and

7–15 October 2021 (mh 983) 9 days • £3,310 Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

Chief cities of Brandenburg- and Saxony, rich in fine and decorative arts. Internationally important historic and contemporary architecture. Rebuilding and restoration continues to transform the cities.

Berlin is an upstart among European cities. Until the seventeenth century it was a small town of little importance, but by dint of ruthless and energetic rule, backed by the military prowess for which it became a byword, the hitherto unimportant state of Brandenburg- Prussia became one of the most powerful in . By the middle of the eighteenth century, with at the helm, Berlin, , watercolour by E.T. Compton, publ. 1912. it was successfully challenging the great powers of Europe. Vault is the finest surviving treasury of and auxiliary buildings. In the afternoon visit Ambitious campaigns were instituted to goldwork and objets d’art, and the his relatively modest single-storey palace atop endow the with grandeur appropriate reopened in 2010 to display a fine collection of terraces of fruit trees and the exquisite Chinese to its new status. Palaces, public buildings and nineteenth- and twentieth-century art. teahouse. Overnight in Potsdam. new districts were planned and constructed. At nearby Potsdam, Frederick’s second capital, he Day 5: Potsdam, Berlin. Spend the morning created the park of , among the finest Itinerary on the Alter Markt, seeing the Nikolaikirche, a ensembles of gardens, palaces and pavilions Day 1: Dresden. Fly at c. 10.45am from Classicist-style, Lutheran church. The Museum to be found anywhere. Early in the nineteenth Heathrow to Berlin (British Airways) and drive Barberini was built on the site of the original century Berlin became of international to Dresden. Introductory lecture before dinner. Barberini Palace, which was largely destroyed importance architecturally when Karl Friedrich First of three nights in Dresden. by bombing in 1945 and then demolished three Schinkel, the greatest of Neo-Classical years later. Walk through the city’s historical architects, designed several buildings there. Day 2: Dresden. The is a unique Dutch Quarter. After lunch travel to Berlin Berlin has museums of art and antiquities confection, part pleasure palace, by coach. The of Klein-Glienicke is a of the highest importance. The part arena for festivities and part museum dream of ; visit its gardens strewn with and Gemäldegalerie are among the best of their for cherished collections. Visit the excellent Neoclassical garden buildings. First of four kind and the recently opened Neues Museum, museum and the fabulously rich Old nights in Berlin. designed by David Chipperfield, provides an Masters Gallery, particularly strong on Italian Day 6: Berlin. A walk to see a selection of the excellent setting for the Egyptian collection. and Netherlandish painting. The of historic and new , passing The reunited city is now one of the most the Residenzschloss displays one of the world’s Bebelplatz, the with its twin exciting in Europe. A huge amount of work has finest princely treasuries. churches and concert hall, and the Humboldt- been done to knit together the two halves of Day 3: Dresden, . Visit the great domed Forum, a much-anticipated and controversial the city and to rebuild and restore monuments Frauenkirche, the Protestant cathedral. Drive new museum project on the site of the former which had been neglected for decades. to Pillnitz, a summer palace in Chinese City Palace, due for completion in 2020. Spend Dresden was the capital of the Electorate style, with park, gardens and collections of the afternoon on ‘’: the Bode of Saxony. Though it suffered terrible decorative art. Take a boat trip back along the Museum houses a splendid, comprehensive destruction during , rebuilding and to Dresden for an optional afternoon visit collection of European sculpture, including restoration allow the visitor to appreciate of the New Masters Gallery in the Albertinum. works by Riemenschneider, as well as Byzantine once again something of its former beauty. art, and the houses an The great domed Frauenkirche has now Day 4: Dresden, Potsdam. In the morning excellent collection of 19th-century paintings been triumphantly reconstructed. Moreover, drive on to Potsdam. The enclosed park of and sculptures. the collections of fine and applied arts are Sanssouci was created as a retreat from the magnificent. The Old Masters Gallery in affairs of state by Frederick the Great. It Day 7: Berlin. A morning walk includes Unter Dresden is of legendary richness, the Green consists of gardens, parkland, palaces, pavilions den Linden, Peter Eisenmann’s controversial book online at www.martinrandall.com Telephone 020 8742 3355 MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden continued

Holocaust Memorial and the unmistakeable as described below; breakfasts, 3 lunches symbol of the city, the . End and 5 dinners with wine; all admissions; tips at the Reichstag, a ponderous 1880s structure for waiters, drivers and guides; all taxes; the scarred by the vicissitudes of the 20th century, services of the lecturer and tour manager. the shell now brilliantly rehabilitated by Accommodation. Taschenbergpalais Norman Foster and topped by the famous Kempinski, Dresden (kempinski.com/en/ glass dome. Lunch is at the rooftop restaurant. dresden/hotel-taschenbergpalais): a 5-star Visit the Kunstgewerbemuseum, the Museum hotel in the heart of the Old Town, 2 minutes’ of Decorative Arts, one of the many museums walk from the and the Zwinger. scattered around the ‘Kulturforum’. The Steigenberger Hotel Sanssouci, Potsdam Gemäldegalerie houses one of Europe’s major (steigenberger.com): a 4-star hotel on the edge collections of Old Masters. of Potsdam’s old town, very close to Sanssouci Day 8: Berlin. Drive to Schloss , Palace. Regent Hotel, Berlin (theregentberlin. the earliest major building in Berlin, an de): an elegant 5-star hotel decorated in outstanding summer palace built with a Regency style, located close to Unter den Baroque core and Rococo wings, fine interiors, Linden. Single rooms are doubles for sole use paintings by Watteau, extensive gardens, throughout. pavilions and a mausoleum. The Berggruen How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking Collection of Picasso and classic required and standing around in museums. is also here and has recently reopened after Average distance by coach per day: 44 miles. extensive renovation works. Group size: between 10 and 22 participants. Day 9: Berlin. Take a coach to Kreuzberg, passing related landmarks such as the Oberbaumbrücke and Karl-Marx Allee. Pass also the Jewish Museum, ’s jagged, lacerated, powerfully emotive extension to a Baroque palace. Pause at the Prussian National Monument for the Liberation Wars, designed by in 1821. Fly from Berlin to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 3.30pm.

Lecturer Dr Jarl Kremeier. Art historian specialising in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and decorative arts; teaches Art History at the Berlin College of Acting and the Senior Student’s Department of Berlin’s Freie Universität. He studied at the Universities of Würzburg, Berlin and the Courtauld, is a contributor to the Macmillan Dictionary of Art, author of a book on the Würzburg Residenz, and of articles on Continental and architectural theory.

Practicalities Price, per person. Two sharing: £3,310 or £3,140 without flights.Single occupancy: £3,880 or £3,710 without flights. Included: air travel (economy class) on British Airways flights (Airbus A319); travel by private coach throughout; accommodation book online at www.martinrandall.com [email protected]