the chinese house at sanssouci park.
what i was most interested in when we decided to spend a week in potsdam was sanssouci palace & and its park. my mother had told me how had she roamed the extensive grounds of the park back in her youth and there were photos proving that. these two things made me want to visit so badly, i don't even really know why. maybe i kind of wanted to feel something of the past, something that my mother had seen prior and maybe formed her to the woman she later became. okay, granted, she was a teen back then, and teens probably don't have that much interest into cultural things. but even though my mother was so young, she still acknowledged the beauty of it, even in her retellings. she said that even back then the park and its many buildings, sanssouci palace and the new palace, they were all kept in good shape. which is actually quite remarkable as the GDR government didn't really like the old 'imperialistic' remnants of the past and demolished quite a lot of old and important architecture to realize their own visions of 'appropriate & modern' architecture. and here it is again, the divide in my head. i am glad that not everything got torn down. but i'm also feeling this juxtaposition in my head ( especially related to the old market in the city ) that even though a lot of the old architecture was re-erected and is mighty beautiful to look at, it would be nice to have kept some of the GDR-architecture for historic reasons as well.
anyway, in the case of sanssouci palace ( and lots of other palaces in potsdam as well ), the government decided to upkeep these places and preserve them for the future. that's why basically the city of potsdam is a world heritage site now, a city full of pompous palaces & parks, something that cannot be found in such a way anywhere else in germany. the whole city feels like an accumulation of grandiosity and splendor, thanks to the many 'imperialistic remnants of the past'.
and i was absolutely impressed and even kind of overwhelmed at times. but let's stop & take a look at this wonderful park & all you can find inside.
our first stop in the park was the chinese house and it definitely blew my mind. chinoiserie was a trend during the reign of frederick the great, so needless to say that he had to have something related to that in his gardens. this 'house' ( more like a villa to me ) was build between 1755 and 1764 by johann gottfried büring. he built quite a few iconic potsdam buildings ( nauen gate, new palace & the picture gallery for example ). the chinese house is a fantastic mixture of baroque & chinese elements, and its figurine groups are such a delight to look at. it's very elegant and quaint somehow, albeit a slightly bit overdone with all the gold - which strangely is its actual appeal because it looks so glossy & polished. i loved this building the most, probably, because the sculptural work is just beautiful.
i feel like green & gold go so very well together. the groups of people are eating, drinking or making music, which indicates that the house was used for social events. fun fact ( or not, depends on how you look at it ): the figurines don't look entirely chinese, but very european. they wear chinese attire ( at least what they considered as typically chinese back then ), but their faces are not chinese enough. this is due to the use of local people for the modelation of the sculptures.
this tea drinking scene was rather lovely.
the house was surrounded by the sculptures, there was no side of it that wasn't decorated with one.
not quite sure what's going on here. cooking?
the details of the sandstone columns were so intricate.
and the design of the gilded doors & windows were making me quite happy, with all the patterns that were created around them.
the roof part of the building was embellished with cute round windows and botanical ornaments! i could've easily spend more time there, trying to capture all the details. look at those tiny cord thingies hanging from the jutty? looking like real textile.
the figurine on top of the roof is a mandarin man with opened umbrella.
definitely not looking chinese at all, this woman, haha. by the way, all the figurines were made of sandstone and then gilded. they were the work of johann gottlieb heymüller & johann peter benkert.
sanssouci park is huge, and since we wanted to see more of it and maybe even visit the inside of sanssouci palace as well, we moved on for more exploration. these gingko trees were standing not very far from the chinese house, showcasing a most beautiful autumn yellow!
we proceeded to approach sanssouci palace. it stands on a little terraced hill that overlooks the park basically ( but not really, when you're inside the palace you actually don't have an impressive view at all - it seems shut off somehow - the outside is not really included ). from down there the palace actually looks like an orangery building.
coming closer to the structure is quite impressive. i think that's because of the terraces that lead up to the palace. they grew all kinds of local fruit on them, but also exotic things like figs. to let these grow the architects included paned alcoves, which i think was quite a neat idea. before you head up to the palace, though, you encounter the big fountain with allegoric statues surrounding it.
a sphinx woman & baby putti are greeting you when you enter the property from the side of the marly garden.
they were about to enclosure the marble statues of the big fountain for winter, we were lucky to see them that day! on the far left you can see the historic mill.
one of the many sculptures surrounding the big fountain: 'les pêches dans la mer' which symbolizes the water. there were also allegories of fire, air & earth and several roman gods & goddesses.
one of the big seating areas around the fountain. what a majestic bench this was! and above all you can see sanssouci palace shyly peeking down from the top of the terraces. by now, you can already gather that the palace is not very big, in fact frederick the great wanted to have something intimate, something where he could retreat to when life in berlin ( his main hub ) got too busy. also, he only used the castle during summers, it was solely to be used as a summer residence.
paned alcove with fig trees behind. next to the alcoves are several espalier fruit like vines.
i really liked this gardening idea! looked so neat!
and finally we made our way up the terraces.
sans souci mean 'without worries'. frederick the great wanted exactly that, he didn't want to get disturbed or bothered when he resided in his little palace, he only wanted to focus his mind on music, food, philosophical conversations & everything that had to do with beauty. it was his intimate happy place ( even though luxuriously displayed for everyone who came to visit ). the palace ( with the size of a villa basically ) was designed by knobelsdorff ( remember the city palace? ), but he got fired halfway through and jan bouman completed it ( the guy who designed the dutch quarter ). the 10-room palace was build from 1745 to 1747 and the style it was built in is nowadays called frederican rococo. i love it's yellow facade, because it makes it look so sunny & friendly, obviously a good choice for someone who didn't want to worry.
several atlas & caryatid sculptures are supporting the roof of the palace, a detail i fell absolutely in love with.
a somewhat complete take of the whole palace. it is truly a very light & lofty building, right?
there are two of those trellised gazebos in front of the palace, perfect for strolling around in beautiful rococo dresses, don't you agree? i could very much imagine having a photoshoot here with someone interested in the time era and full attire of the old fashion back then.
these suns were heavily inspired by louis XIV, the sun king of france. they were gorgeous 😍
frederick's grave epitaph ( and actual grave ). the potatos on it are not a disregard for the king, but a respectful offering - a tradition started by his tributaries, because he had given an order to introduce the potato to the general public as staple food. by the way, you probably wonder why his grave is such a simple one. he didn't want to have a pompous burial, just wanted a quiet little space right next to his beloved palace. he also 'wanted to be buried at night, with only a few people attending it'. he didn't get his will after his death... at first. his successor frederick william II had buried him inside the garrison church and after several detours throughout germany due to wars he finally returned to his intented burial ground about 220 years later in 1991. another fun fact: frederick wanted sanssouci only to last a lifetime, he did not intend to repair and restore anything about his palace. towards the end of his life the building was in disarray and he would only get repairs done very reluctantly. his philosophy was to live very modestly, without much splendor, which is kind of hilarious in a way, because that dude was obviously living in splendor all day long. the other palaces he lived in were abundant with splendor as well even though they were often just representative ones. i guess if he wanted to he would've only ever lived inside sanssouci or charlottenburg palace in berlin, those were the two favourite homes of his. in his mind, he was a rather spartanic living monarch.
we went inside the palace as well, but taking pictures is only allowed for a small fee. my father paid this fee and made a few photos, but well, i don't have them at disposal so you have to take my words for it that the inside was as splendid as the outside, haha. if you're curious though, click on through for a virtual walk-through.
because i couldn't get enough, have some more caryatids and atlas dudes.
their expressions were quite punchy.
the new chambers are not very far away from sanssouci palace and were used as an orangery at first but were turned into a guest house under frederick. they're the complement to the picture gallery ( which we didn't visit ) on the other side of sanssouci palace. it wasn't open when we visited, but you can have another virtual adventure if you want to!
the gardens in front of the new chambers.
we accidently looked at the sky and got aware of some really wavy clouds. it was like looking up into the sea instead of the sky!
we moved on towards the orangery palace and on our way passed by this plaza. it's the nordic garden, a smaller park structure before you enter the grounds of the orangery palace.
the first picture didn't show the sky very well, so i switched to HDR and tried again. while the first photo really showcases autumnal colours quite beautifully, the second one just impresses you with the ocean sky. it was truly a remarkable spectacle.
and the gingko trees lost all of their attire, and sprinkled the earth golden!
entering the grounds of the orangery palace. this palace was build from 1851 to 1864 under the reigns of frederick william IV. he initially wanted it to be part of a triumph street that started at the triumph gate near sanssouci castle & ended at the belvedere on the klausberg hill. it never came to completion because of the march revolution taking place and several other things like a lack of funding. it's built in the style of renaissance revival, having italian palazzi in mind. the building is about 300 meter long, which makes it the longest of all the palaces in sanssouci park. it accommodates rooms for storing plants ( orangery function ) and also living spaces. the combination of orangery & residential property makes it so special to me. imagine living inside this palace with so much greenery surrounding you, living some kind of a jungle life! sounds magical to me.
the palace has a central block flanked by 2 wings on each side and also 2 pavilions. inside the wings you can find the orangery halls, whereas the living quarters reside in the central block. the pavilions had appartments for servants & economic areas. this is one of the pavilions.
they're not really pavilions per se, but actual cubed buildings with an inner court where a thoroughfare lead you through.
the eastern orangery hall.
several figurines grace the alcoves between the full length windows. this guy with the hourglass spoke to me somehow.
looking at the eastern pavilion again. here you can see what i was talking about earlier: the drive-through path crossing the inner court of the pavilion.
i really liked the fact that some part of the palace were in slight disarray, which made it the more charming.
the terraced side of the palace. it looks out onto park sanssouci.
a peek inside one of the orangery halls. unfortunately the palace isn't open to public during late autumn & winter, which i was quite sad about, because i really was interested in having a look. but then again, i need this as a reason to return someday and have a look at all the other buildings we didn't get to see on our visit. i haven't seen the peace church for example, and also didn't enter the picture gallery and other palaces surrounding potsdam, so the orangery palace is now a part of things i still need to see in this city.
a non-HDR picture of the hall.
this hottie with a leaf covering his intimate parts was quite alluring 😋
the main entry to the center block. the castle was designed by several architects, some i already mentioned before, like ludwig persius, august stüler & ludwig ferdinand hesse, who were also responsible for several more buildings in the city, such as nikolaikirche.
lovely dame of the crops.
several other figurines can be found around the terraces, this one is the 'flying victoria' by august fischer. i loved how she was the perfect focal point for this picture, especially trying to capture the still awesome looking ocean sky of that afternoon.
the HDR picture is quite dramatic ( which i actually love ), but i wanted to include a picture as well that showed the real condition of that time. even without the overdramatization, the motive was still spectacular.
the sky conditions mirrored inside the orangery windows.
we left the palace on the west side and continued our way toward the klausberg belvedere. to be continued ;)
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