This noble old building lies directly west across the Spree from Museum Island, in the midst of the most heavily touristed part of Berlin. It still shows the scars of the battle for the city after sixty years.

Just steps away from it to the south, another veteran of the war has been totally repaired and restored. The many holes left by large and small-arms fire exchanged in April and May of 1945 have been filled by stone cosmeticians, who have painstakingly simulated the subtle textures of the original rusticated stone on the surfaces of their plugs. See the image below, taken hours later than that above, as we left the Pergamon Museum in l'heur bleu.