Gemäldegalerie Museum, Berlin

The main collection at the Gemaldegalerie features artwork from some of most important European artists from the 13^th to 18^th century. Spanning the Late Gothic and Renaissance eras, the work of these ‘old masters’ includes paintings from van Eyck, Bruegel, Durer, Raphael, Tizian, Caravaggio, Rubens, Vermeer and Rembrandt. This includes Woman with a Pearl Necklace, The Wine Glass (Vermeer), Portrait of a Young Girl (Christus), Man in a Golden Helmet (Rembrandt), Amor Victorious (Caravaggio), Sacred Love Versus Profane Love (Baglione) and Malle Babbe (Hals). In total, there are some 850 works to visit in over 70 rooms with over 2 kilometres of floor-space to walk through.

One of the main highlights of the Gemaldegalerie is the octagonal room, which is dedicated to the works of Dutch painter, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. This room lies in the very centre of the Gemaldegalerie and is very hard to miss. The rest of the museums’ rooms used to display up to 5 artists’, reflecting a similarity in theme or the time of their work. All of the paintings are connected in some way such as a range of Flemish moralistic paintings which portray the clash between sensuality and religion.  

The history of the Gemaldegalerie Museum dates back to 1830 but the current building is of modern-day design having been officially opened in 1998. It was designed by German architects, Heinz Hilmer and Crostoph Sattler who arranged the building so that all of the rooms on the second floor flowed around a central hall. This layout is still in operation and the room is now called The Mediation Hall; it allows easy access to adjacent wings of the museum. The Gemaldegalerie is located in the South-West corner of Berlin’s Kulturforum; a cultural quarter which features some of Berlin’s most important galleries and museums nearby.

The Divento.com don't miss list: Amor Victorious by Caravaggio, Sacred Love and Profane Love by Giovanni Baglione, Portrait of a Young Girl by Petrus Christus, The Wine Glass by Vermeer, Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Madonnas by Raphael.