Nikolaiviertel

The two settlements of Old Berlin as well as Cölln on the other side of the Spree originated along an old trade route, the Mühlendamm ('Mills Dam'), a ford where the river could be easily crossed.

The area around the church with its medieval alleys in the main had been preserved throughout the centuries, until it was destroyed by air raids and the Battle of Berlin during World War II.

At Berlin's 750th anniversary in 1987 the house-building was restored in a peculiar mixture of reconstructed historic houses and concrete slab Plattenbau blocks, giving the area an unmistakable appearance.

Beside Saint Nicholas' Church, the best-known building of the quarter is the Ephraim-Palais, built in 1766 for Veitel-Heine Ephraim, the financier of King Frederick II of Prussia.

On the banks of the Spree stands the red sandstone Kurfürstenhaus ('House of the Prince-elector'), erected in 1897 at the site of an older building, where John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg died on December 23, 1619.

Nikolaiviertel and St. Nicholas Church from above
Neighborhoods in Berlin-Mitte : Old Cölln [1] (with Museum Island [1a], Fisher Island [1b]), Alt-Berlin [2] (with Nikolaiviertel [2a]), Friedrichswerder [3], Neukölln am Wasser [4], Dorotheenstadt [5], Friedrichstadt [6], Luisenstadt [7], Stralauer Vorstadt (with Königsstadt ) [8], Alexanderplatz Area (Königsstadt and Altberlin) [9], Spandauer Vorstadt [10] (with Scheunenviertel [10a]), Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stadt [11], Oranienburger Vorstadt [12], Rosenthaler Vorstadt [13]
Probststraße
Nikolaikirchplatz , the heart of Nikolaiviertel
Ephraim-Palais
Zum Nußbaum , a historic inn