the shores of the holy lake ( heiliger see ).
the new garden in which cecilienhof palace is situated sits directly next to a small lake - heiliger see. the park itself was created because frederick william II wanted his own pendant to sanssouci park, he thought of it as antiquated & from a gone era. it is said that he & his uncle frederick the great did not have a good relationship & everything inside sanssouci park was of course reminding him of his uncle, and was against his visions of an adequate residence. frederick william was the exact opposite of his uncle who, despite sharing interests for music, fine arts & philosophy reigned very strictly and didn't allow himself a 'luxurious' life - always working a lot. frederick william II though, was a pleasure-seeker, interested in the lighter side of life, not familiar with diplomacy or politics ( which would've been different if his uncle had given him the proper education - frederick the great however never liked his nephew and denied him all kinds of insight into the politics of prussia ). i think it's kinda funny that he became the new king after frederick died, basically because of the stark contrasts between them. prussia was weakened under the reign of frederick william, he basically halted the development of his country, inside & outside. i bet frederick the great would've cringed a lot if he had been alive during his nephew's reign, haha. but you know, it was his fault, too, he could've given him the attention & education he needed to be a successful successor...
anyway, frederick william still left behind a legacy, and the new garden is one of them. inside this beautiful landscape garden you can find another special palace ( next to cecilienhof palace ): the marmorpalais. there are more gimmicks inside the park, an orangery, a library, a grotto, artificial ruins, a pyramid & several summer houses. all those architectural addendums were erected with special purposes in mind, but these purposes weren't exactly in relation to their style. for example the pyramid below - it's an ice house. frederick william was a freemason and it makes sense that he wanted to adorn his park with symbols & elements important to freemasonry.
the park's development started in 1787 & basically was completed around 1816, when joseph lenné added the last finishing touches to it.
i must say i really liked this pyramid. especially the black sidings. looked so elegant.
while we started in clear sky & bright sunlight conditions, by this time the weather changed into some fog/sunlight combination. which was eerily beautiful.
i don't know what the symbols on the pyramid mean or the hieroglyphs. but it looked so pretty nonetheless.
i can't really imagine an ice cellar being inside this structure, haha. surely i think it should be like a... place of worship or something. or an illuminati temple, lol.
i'm shitty with symbols & everything. i'd really like to know if these bear any sort of significance.
departing this mysterious pyramid.
& arriving at the marble palace. the marble palace was built from 1787 to 1797 ( by carl von gontard & carl gotthard langhans ), and was changed a few times since then. initially the palace was for the private use of frederick william, which means that it was his personal retreat away from berlin & the official hideouts of the monarchy. here he could indulge in life's every pleasure, go on boat ventures along the havel lakes & let his soul unwind. the neo-classical palace has a monumental elegance to it, but with a distinct prussian atmosphere. for example the central block - it was built with brickstones, which really isn't very common in classical architecture. this was actually more a reference to the prussian way of building. as you can probably also guess, the palace is outfitted in a lot of marble, hence its official name ;)
some marble stones of the colonnades were formerly part of a different architectural ensemble in park sanssouci - the marble colonnades. they had to be dismantled after they had been really decrepit, but thank god, frederick william needed inexpensive marble for his palace. the colonnades were my favourite detail of the whole place, because the walls & ceilings are covered with beautiful frescos of 'nibelungenlied' sceneries. the song of the nibelungs is one of the oldest germanic stories and was adapted by hundreds of writers, musicians, film makers & creatives. it's basically a super huge tragedy / murder story, pretty bloody but also very passionate & thrilling.
ute, the mother of one of the main protagonists, kriemhild. she stands for the old generation of women who were devout to men & counted on their protection for wellbeing & didn't dare speak up about love. kriemhild ( also called gudrun ) though, was really different, she wanted to have full control over who she would start a relationship with & wanted to live in a society of pleasure.
siegfried ( sigurd ), the main hero of the first part of the nibelung song. he's a very strong & fearless dude who was basically invincible due to the defeat of a dragon. ( basically, because he had one vulnerable spot on his body, where a linden leaf had fallen on while he had bathed in the dragon's blood, which would later be his doom ).
mom admiring the frescos. we didn't dare to enter through the open door, i think some manufacturers were working inside.
the marble floor reminded me of the japanese mending technique 'kintsugi'. it was really beautiful.
close-up of hot siegfried ( lol ).
the special thing about the marble palace is that it basically was only one floor ( only the center block was three stories high - the lookout on top included ). the reason for that is rather simple: frederick william II wasn't a slender man. towards the end of his life he was super corpulent ( he had a sickness called ascites ) and couldn't move up many stairs anymore. he died inside this palace, only 53 years old.
the view over the holy lake. it's a backed-up lake with a small link to the havel river system.
the palace from the east. it has a direct connection to the lake, so frederick william could head out on boat adventures from time to time.
what a view!
the sunlight was wonderful at this point. perfectly creating a melancholic mood.
we moved on to discover some more of the new garden.
next up: the orangery. on the head of the building you encounter this egyptian portal with a sphinx guarding it. the two figures are some egyptian gods.
beautifully aged doors & windows.
the gothic library. it housed the library of frederick william, which combined french & german literature. unlike his great uncle who prefered french literature frederick william was a patron of all things german. the library was built from 1792 to 1794 by langhans.
looking back into the direction of the marmorpalais & seeing one of the 4 summer houses in the new garden, too!
the green house. frederic williams' last doctor lived here and after him the garden architect lenné also had his headquarters here. today there are appartments inside!
we left the park and made our way back to the city, passing by our solar system. it's on the grounds of 'treffpunkt freizeit' - a former youth recreation center of the GDR ( it still is a recreation center & a very cool one, too ). it's a mosaic work by annette messig with the help of kids created from 2013 to 2015.
the golden sun is especially eye-catching.
dusk was settling in slowly and we made a last short stop at sanssouci palace, before heading home. this crow had a particularly good taste in look-outs.
blue hour sanssouci pavilions.
the evening mood was especially nice. this looks like frederic the great was still living inside his home.
until they switched on the outdoor lighting.
and the last picture is of the picture gallery seen from schopenhauerstraße.
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