Church of Peace

Frederick William himself made the original sketches on which the design was to be based. He gave his court architect Ludwig Persius two main instructions: The church was to derive in form and size from the early Christian Basilica di San Clemente in Rome. And it had to accommodate the apse mosaic from the church San Cipriano on the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon, which Frederick William had purchased in 1834 when that church was scheduled for demolition. A popular etching of the early Christian version of the Basilica di San Clemente in Rome made by Johann Gottfried Gutensohn and Johann Michael Knapp probably inspired the design of the Potsdam church. Under Frederick William, the church served as the chapel royal and as a church for the parish of Brandenburger Vorstadt (a part of Potsdam). The church is a columned basilica with three naves and no transept, with a free-standing belltower. The 13.5 m high central nave overlaps the side aisles, which are half as wide. An arcade of central arches mark the crossing point. The religious Frederick William IV desired a flat coffered ceiling on the inside, with gold stars on a blue base painted on the panels. The king saw the design of early Christian sacred buildings, converted from market and court halls, as particularly appropriate. He was trying to establish a reconciliation between the Protestant majority of the original Prussian state and the Catholics of the more recently acquired lands, notably in the Rhineland Province. Since he associated Gothic architecture with the Catholic faith, he was looking for an alternative design vocabulary for the Prussian-Protestant church. Skipping Martin Luther, he went back to early Christianity as an inspiration. However, he did not distinguish too finely between early Christian and High Medieval architecture - as long as it was Romanesque. An original Venetian mosaic from the early 13th century decorates the church's apse. While he was crown prince Frederick William had it bought at auction for 385 thalers and brought to Potsdam by boat. The mosaic shows the enthroned Christ with the Book of Life, the right hand upheld in blessing. At each side stand Mary and John the Baptist. Next to them stand the apostle Peter and Saint Cyprian, martyred by beheading in 258 and patron saint of Saint Cipriana, wearing chasubles. As an allegory for the Holy Spirit, a pigeon decorates the vertex of the hemisphere. Over the heads of the archangels Raphael and Michael a lamb shines as a symbol of Christ. On the semicircle of the apse a Latin inscription reads, according to Martin Luther's translation: "Lord, I have a love for the site of your house and the place where your glory resides". The altar canopy, which rests on four dark green columns, was created from Siberian jasper (semi-precious stones) and was a gift from Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, the king's brother-in-law. It was installed in the Church of Peace in 1842. In the right-hand aisle lies the former baptistery. The six-sided baptismal stone was relocated in 1965. The counterpart to the baptistery is the sacristy in the left-hand aisle. After the death of Frederick William IV it was used temporarily as a mausoleum for him and for other deceased members of the House of Hohenzollern. The son of Emperor Friedrich III and his wife Empress Victoria, as well as the Princes Sigismund and Waldemar, were entombed here until 1892. In 1920 the youngest son of Wilhelm II, the last Emperor of Germany, was interred in the sacristy. After 1931 he was moved to the Antique Temple. Under two marble tablets, embedded in the ground in front of the steps of the altar room, the royal crypt can be found. Frederick William IV died following several strokes on 2 January 1861, and following the dedication of the crypt in October 1864 his coffin was placed there. The heart of the king, however, rests in the mausoleum of Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. He was laid in the ground at the feet of his parents, King Frederick William III and Queen Louise. In 1873 his wife Elisabeth Ludovika followed him to the grave. Both coffins, made out of English tin, carry the same inscription as the marble plates in the church floor: "Here he rests in God, his Redeemer, in the hope of resurrection in the soul and a merciful judgment, justified solely by the service of Jesus Christ our most holy Saviour and Only Life". In the year of the crypt's dedication, the flooring of the church was completed as Frederick William IV had wished; the design is an intricately interleaved endless ribbon that represents eternity. The free-standing, 42 m high campanile (belltower), on the southern side, is based on the design of the campanile of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome. An aedicula (column-bearing dais) on the east side bears the fresco "Jesus in Gethsemane" by Eduard Steinbrück. The tower has seven open floors. The four bells, named Gratia, Clementia, Pax and Gloria, sound from the third floor above the clockwo