Missing St. Moritz

The French-Napoleonic occupation of Spandau in 1806 desecrated the building and used it as a slaughterhouse and warehouse. The Prussian army also subsequently kept the former church in military use as a barracks. In 1920, the year Spandau was incorporated into Greater Berlin, the originally medieval structure was demolished to make way for new residential buildings. Although the approximate location remained known, it was still a minor sensation when the medieval foundation walls of St. Moritz Church were rediscovered during construction work in 2023.

With this exhibition, the Spandau Museum of Local History is, for the first time, comprehensively exploring the history of this long-forgotten church. The focus is on the archaeological excavations conducted there in 2023/24 and their research findings. On display are selected original artifacts—some from graves in the churchyard—and archival materials, some of which date back to the Middle Ages and are rarely exhibited.

Later documents, historical photographs, and digital analyses of the archaeological findings provide further fascinating insights—and raise the question of whether Spandau’s church history is older than that of Berlin-Cölln.