Berlin
An elemental bridge
It's often said that Berlin boasts more bridges than Venice, but is this beautiful city centre walkway ever included in that tally?
The footbridge spans Französische Strasse near its intersection with Mauerstrasse. Renaissance-style stone figures support the structure, and each is inscribed with the name of one of the four elements: fire, water, earth and air.
Today, the walkway surprises with its rather solitary presence, although it was once part of a very grand complex indeed.
The two huge buildings it connects were for many years home to Germany's national bank which, together with another nearby plot, constituted the country's largest banking complex.
Much of the elaborately decorated headquarters was severely damaged in WWII, although at Mauerstrasse 27, the surviving entrance to the main banking hall gives another indication of former opulence - behind the three elaborate wrought-iron gates, customers were received in an enormous, marble-clad hall lit by an opalescent glass dome.
Former Deutsche Bank headquarters: Mauerstraße 25–32,10117 Berlin
