Although the German state of Prussia which once stretched from the Rhineland to Lithuania-has long passed into history, it is still a source of fascination and controversy. A never-ending stream of publications continues to explore the phenomenal transformation of a once small and insignificant medieval principality on the fringe of the German Empire into a major European power and its sudden disappearance from the map in the 20 th century.

The central question in these discussions is the influence of Brandenburg-Prussia on German and European history and what remains of this once powerful state.

While skillfully setting out the intriguing history of the state, the authors of this lavishly illustrated volume firmly concentrate on the remarkable art and architecture of Prussia. This cultural journey takes the reader from the earliest surviving artistic testimonies of German settlement in the March of Brandenburg - medieval monasteries, churches, and civic halls - through the splendors of the Baroque and Neo-classical periods (the eras of "palaces and porcelain") to the grandiose art of the German Emperors and the confident emergence of Modernism - a journey that will end with the collapse of the Hohenzollern dynasty in 1918.