Museum Humboldt Forum in Berlin

You're standing in front of the Humboldt Forum, on Schlossplatz in the very heart of Berlin. Take a good look at the façades. They look as if they've been here for centuries, with baroque decoration in the style of the architect Andreas Schlüter. But don't be fooled: this building is only a few years old. Right on this spot stood the Berlin Palace. It was home to the Electors of Brandenburg, and later to the Kings of Prussia and the German Emperors. It was badly damaged in the Second World War. In the autumn of 1950, East German leader Walter Ulbricht had what was left blown up. The Palace of the Republic went up in its place, and that was eventually torn down too. In 2002 the German government and the city decided to rebuild the palace. The Italian architect Franco Stella came up with the design. Three of the four façades are as faithful a copy as possible. Walk round to the side facing the River Spree and you'll see the fourth one, which is modern. Old and new, literally back to back. Construction started at the end of 2010 and took a long time. The plan was to open in 2015, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of German reunification. In the end it opened in December 2020, and because of the pandemic only online at first. The doors really opened in July 2021, and the last wing followed in 2022. It became Germany's most expensive cultural project to date. So what's inside? The museum is named after the brothers Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt. It holds the non-European collections of the Berlin State Museums: the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art. There are wings on the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, plus an exhibition about Berlin itself. The collection is also controversial, because part of it dates from the colonial era, like the famous Benin Bronzes. Do head up to the roof terrace, thirty metres up. From there you can see the Cathedral, the TV Tower and the Brandenburg Gate. Getting here is easy on metro line U5, Museumsinsel station.