Potsdam, Sanssouci Park
The enchanting park and palace of Charlottenhof are the product of a happy collaborative venture between two brilliant creative minds: architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and landscape gardener Peter Joseph Lenné.
Frederick William III purchased the site southwest of the original Sanssouci Park in 1825 as a Christmas present for Crown Prince Frederick William IV and his wife Elizabeth of Bavaria. In 1826–1829 Karl Friedrich Schinkel converted the existing manor house into a classical villa to serve as a summer residence. The task of landscaping this former farmland fell to Peter Joseph Lenné. In the immediate vicinity of the house he created a garden of compact design and an east-west orientation, beginning with a rose garden to catch the morning sun, a terrace along the house for the midday sun, and further west the poets’ grove and the Ildefonso group for the evening and nocturnal hours. The drive and broad sight-lines skilfully link the new park with the old park of Sanssouci. Nothing is left to chance, be it a movement of terrain, a cluster of trees or a free-standing structure. An artificial lake put the perfect finishing touch to this landscaped garden.
Roman Baths
Potsdam, Sanssouci Park
The buildings which make up the Roman Baths were constructed in 1829–1840 to drawings by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Ludwig Persius. The court gardener lived in the villa with a tower. From the little garden with its beds of “Italian cultures”, including maize, hemp, artichokes and tobacco, the arcades lead to the Roman Baths themselves. This structure resembles a house in an Ancient civilisation and was used by the Crown Prince as a museum for his Italian souvenirs. Frederick William IV liked to take tea at the pavillion on the banks of the artificial reservoir.
