Which Berlin landmark was commissioned by King Frederick William II and completed in 1791?

Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by King Frederick William II and completed in 1791.

The neoclassical gate was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans and modeled partly on the Propylaea, the monumental entrance to Athens’ Acropolis. It originally marked the beginning of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel.

A quadriga—a four-horse chariot driven by the Roman goddess of victory—crowns the structure. The sculpture was created by Johann Gottfried Schadow and installed in 1793, two years after the gate opened.

The gate became a major symbol of German history. Napoleon’s forces took the quadriga to Paris in 1806, but it was returned to Berlin in 1814. During the Cold War, the gate stood near the Berlin Wall and became especially associated with German reunification after the wall fell in 1989. It is sometimes confused with the nearby Reichstag Building, which houses Germany’s federal parliament.