Sanssouci
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Potsdam (German pronunciation: [ˈpɔtsdam] ⓘ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region.
- Sanssouci Palace
- Sanssouci Park
- Dutch Quarter
- Cecilienhof
- Neues Palais
- Brandenburg Gate
- Belvedere auf Dem Pfingstberg
- Park Babelsberg
- Neuer Garten
- Museum Barberini
Frederick the Great’s summer palace was built between 1745 and 1747 as somewhere he could escape from the strictures of the Berlin court. That thinking is clear from the name, Sanssouci, which roughly translates to “without cares”. This sublime Rococo palace is also surprisingly intimate in its scale, standing at only one storey tall (only the seco...
The palace and its terraced garden are at the centre of an expansive park designed and landscaped in the decades that followed. The size of this project is almost bewildering, as the park encompasses almost 300 hectares and is crisscrossed by alleys framed by hedges trimmed at right angles. To get an idea of scale it’s 2.5-kilometres from Sanssouci...
During Potsdam’s second expansion between 1733 and 1742 a whole neighbourhood of Dutch-style red brick gabled houses cropped up either side of Mittelstraße. There are 134 buildings in all, designed by the Dutch architect Jan Bouman. The quarter is testament to Frederick William I of Prussia’s love for Dutch culture and desire to attract Dutch artis...
The House of Hohenzollern’s final palace was built during the First World War in the style of an English Tudor mansion. Cecilienhof is half-timbered and has decorative turreted chimney stacks. The whole palace was inspired by Hill Bark on Merseyside, which itself is a Victorian reproduction of a Renaissance half-timbered design and was adored by Ge...
The other end of the spectrum to the cute, personal Sanssouci, the Neues Palais is a huge Baroque palace built as a statement of Prussian power by Frederick the Great at the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War with France. Frederick had a preference for the outdated Baroque over the new Neoclassical style, and he roped in Johann Gottfried Büring, wh...
Not to be mixed up with the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Potsdam’s own Neoclassical arch was built around 20 years earlier, in 1770/71. The monument, based on Rome’s Arch of Constantine, was ordered by Frederick William II to celebrate Prussia’s victory in the Seven Years’ War. It replaced the Medieval gate that stood here before, and was part of Po...
Frederick William IV commissioned this grand viewing platform in the middle of the 19th century to take advantage of the view from the top of the Pfingstberg hill, which rises to 76 metres. Although the structure is only a small piece of what was here before it’s still a marvellous piece of heritage: The belvedere was restored in the 1990s after be...
On Potsdam’s northeastern fringe is a 124-hectare park bordering the Tiefen See lake on the River Havel, laid out for Frederick William IV in the 1830s and 1840s. The undulating terrain descending to the lake was first shaped by Peter Joseph Lenné, followed by Hermann, Fürst von Pückler-Muskau another celebrated landscape architect. The latter desi...
In the north of Potsdam on the shores of the Jungfernsee and Heiliger See lakes, Frederick William II (Son of Frederick the Great) plotted a new garden from 1787 onwards. This differed from Sanssouci, and where his father’s park had arrow-straight alleys and parterres, the Neuer Garten was in the looser English style. And as with Sanssouci there’s ...
The Palast Barberini was an 18th-century Italianate palace on Alter Markt that was completely destroyed in 1945. Since 2013 the facades of the palace have been resurrected, while the interiors are completely modern and are home to a new museum that only opened in 2017. Among the guests for the unveiling were Angela Merkel and Bill Gates, while the ...
Prussian pomp and splendour, a heritage of great architects and scholars and a focal point during the Cold War: Potsdam offers breathtaking dimensions of culture and history. 300 years ago, Potsdam was transformed into one of Europe's most splendid royal cities.
Things to Do in Potsdam, Germany: See Tripadvisor's 44,015 traveler reviews and photos of Potsdam tourist attractions. Find what to do today, this weekend, or in September. We have reviews of the best places to see in Potsdam. Visit top-rated & must-see attractions.
Potsdam, city, capital of Brandenburg Land (state), eastern Germany. Lying on the southwest border of Berlin, it is sited where the Nuthe River flows into the Havel River, the confluence becoming a series of lakes.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Potsdam, Germany. Potsdam was the residence of the Prussian kings and German Kaisers until 1918. It is the site of the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany. The city is now the capital of the German federal state of Brandenburg and a home to three public colleges and a major film production studio.
Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Potsdam is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It was once home to the former royal palace and gardens of the Prussian Royal Family and German Kaisers.
