Opened in 1968 in what was then West Berlin, the New National Gallery was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the city's collection of 20th-century art.
The gallery's upper floor is a vast glass hall on a raised platform, reached by three flights of steps. A square steel roof, nearly six feet thick and painted black, rests on just eight cross-shaped columns, set back from the corners so the roof cantilevers far out on every side. Walls of glass enclose an open space for special exhibitions, while larger galleries lie on the floor below, beside sculpture gardens Mies also designed.
Commentators have often seen it as a modern temple. After a renovation by David Chipperfield Architects, the museum reopened in 2021.
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