9 Best Sights in Potsdam, Berlin
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Potsdam - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Neues Palais
A larger and grander palace than Sanssouci, the Neues Palace stands at the end of the long avenue that runs through Sanssouci Park. It was built after the Seven Years' War (1756–63). Impressive interiors include the Grotto Hall with walls and columns set with shells, coral, and other aquatic decorations. The royals' upper apartments have paintings by 17th-century Italian masters. All visits are at scheduled times when you buy a ticket.
Schloss Sanssouci
Prussia's most famous king, Friedrich II—Frederick the Great—spent more time at his summer residence,
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Alter Markt
The hub of Potsdam's historical center was home to the city's baroque palace for three centuries. The area was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in World War II and then further destroyed by the East German regime in 1960. After reunification, Potsdam decided to rebuild its palace, and the re-created structure, with a combination of modern and historic elements, has housed the state parliament since 2013. Thanks to private donors, a magnificent replica of the Fortunaportal, or Fortune's Gate, now stands proudly at the center of the square. A gilded figure of Atlas tops the tower of the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), built in 1755 in the model of an Italian palazzo, its dome meant to mimic the Pantheon's in Rome. The Potsdam Museum contains a large collection of paintings, photographs, and historical objects. Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed the Alter Markt's domed Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church), which was also heavily damaged in the war and only reopened in 1981 after extensive renovations.
Belvedere auf dem Pfingstberg
Commissioned by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the Belvedere on Pfingstberg was built in the Italian Renaissance style with grand staircases, colonnades, and perfect symmetry. It served as a pleasure palace and lofty observation platform for the royals, and the towers still offer one of the best views of Potsdam.
Holländisches Viertel
The center of the small Holländisches Viertel—the Dutch Quarter—is an easy walk north along Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse to Mittelstrasse. Friedrich Wilhelm I built the settlement in the 1730s to entice Dutch artisans who would be able to support the city's rapid growth. The 134 gabled, mansard-roof brick houses make up the largest Dutch housing development outside of the Netherlands today. Antiques shops, boutiques, and restaurants fill the buildings now, and the area is one of Potsdam's most visited.
Neuer Markt
Neuer Markt (New Market) square has baroque-style architecture similar to that of the Alter Markt square and a handful of the city’s best-preserved buildings, some of which date back to the 18th century.
Schloss Cecilienhof
Resembling a rambling Tudor manor house, Schloss Cecilienhof was built for Crown Prince Wilhelm in 1913, on what was then the newly laid-out stretch of park called the Neuer Garten. It was here, in the last palace built by the Hohenzollerns, that the leaders of the allied forces—Stalin, Truman, and Churchill (later Attlee)—hammered out the fate of postwar Germany at the 1945 Potsdam Conference.
Schloss Charlottenhof
After Frederick the Great died in 1786, the ambitious Sanssouci building program ground to a halt, and the park fell into neglect. It was 50 years before another Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, restored Sanssouci's earlier glory, engaging the great Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel to build the small