Self-guided Sightseeing Tour #9 in Potsdam, Germany
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Tour Facts
9.6 km
144 m
Experience Potsdam in Germany in a whole new way with our self-guided sightseeing tour. This site not only offers you practical information and insider tips, but also a rich variety of activities and sights you shouldn't miss. Whether you love art and culture, want to explore historical sites or simply want to experience the vibrant atmosphere of a lively city - you'll find everything you need for your personal adventure here.
Activities in PotsdamIndividual Sights in PotsdamSight 1: Neuer Garten
Like Babelsberg Park and Sanssouci Park, the New Garden is part of the ensemble of Potsdam's Palace Parks. The area is a 102.5-hectare park area bordering the Heiliger See and the Jungfernsee in the north of Potsdam. From 1787, Friedrich Wilhelm II had a new garden laid out on this site, which was to stand out from the baroque Sanssouci Park.
Wikipedia: Neuer Garten Potsdam (DE), Website, Heritage Website
Sight 2: Kaiserin-Augusta-Stift
The Kaiserin-Augusta-Stift at Potsdam's New Garden is a castle-like building complex that was built from 1900 to 1902 under the direction of the architects Lothar Krüger and Arthur Kickton in the neo-Romanesque architectural style, originally as a home for war-orphaned girls by the Empress Augusta Foundation.
Wikipedia: Kaiserin-Augusta-Stift (Potsdam) (DE), Heritage Website
Sight 3: Pfingstkirche
The Protestant Pentecostal Church in Potsdam's Nauener Vorstadt district is located in Große Weinmeisterstraße. It developed from a Pentecost chapel consecrated in 1894. In addition to the church, the New Pentecost House, the parish parsonage and the widow's house are housed on the Pentecost grounds.
Wikipedia: Pfingstkirche (Potsdam) (DE), Website, Heritage Website
Sight 4: Königliches Landhaus
The Royal Country House in Potsdam is situated on mount Kapellenberg and was originally constructed for the sexton of the Russian Orthodox chapel of Saint Alexander Nevsky nearby. The façade of the log house recalls simple German and Russian farm constructions. It was actually used as a royal residence. On the second floor, King Frederik William III would give tea parties, sometimes gathering up to 40 persons. Interior furnishings of the royal rooms affected extreme simplicity. Only a samovar from Tula and table and tea services produced by the Berlin royal porcelain manufactory specified the high position of the dweller. A porcelain service, gift of the Russian emperor Nicholas I, was decorated with painted gold on a malachite background, and scenes of rural life. Since Frederik William's time there has been a tiny monument to Tsar Alexander I, one meter in height.
Wikipedia: Royal Country House (Potsdam) (EN), Heritage Website
Sight 5: Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church
The Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church is an historic Russian Orthodox church building in Potsdam, Germany.
Wikipedia: Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church (EN), Website Ru, Website, Heritage Website
Sight 6: Volkspark Potsdam
Volkspark Potsdam is located in Bornstedter Feld in the north of the city of Potsdam. The area stretches over three kilometres to the Jungfernsee in the north and to the "Lennésche Feldflur" in the west. In the south it borders on the Ruinenberg of Sanssouci Park and on the Nauener Vorstadt and in the east on the Pfingstberg. With an area of 65 hectares, the park comprises the sub-areas In den Wällen, Kleiner and Großer Wiesenpark, Remisenpark and Waldpark (Schragen). The site, which is managed by the development agency Bornstedter Feld, is subject to admission.
Sight 7: Ruinenberg
The Ruinenberg is a hill in the Bornstedt borough of Potsdam, located north of Sanssouci Park. In 1748, the Prussian king Frederick the Great had a water tank with a capacity of around 7,600 cubic metres (270,000 cu ft) built on top to supply the Sanssouci water features, and had it decorated with artificial ruins. From 1841 a surrounding landscape garden was laid out at the behest of King Frederick William IV of Prussia, according to plans designed by Peter Joseph Lenné.
Sight 8: Sanssouci Park
Sanssouci is a historical building in Potsdam, near Berlin. Built by Prussian King Frederick the Great as his summer palace, it is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque counterpart, it, too, is notable for the numerous temples and follies in the surrounding park. The palace was designed and built by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff between 1745 and 1747 to meet Frederick's need for a private residence where he could escape the pomp and ceremony of the royal court. The palace's name is a French phrase meaning "without worries" or "carefree", emphasising that the palace was meant as a place of relaxation rather than a seat of power.
Sight 9: Biologischer Garten
The Botanical Garden in Potsdam, is a botanical garden and arboretum maintained by the University of Potsdam. It has a total area of 8.5 hectares, of which 5 hectares are open to the public, and is located immediately southwest of the Orangery Palace at Maulbeerallee 2, Potsdam, in the German state of Brandenburg. It is open daily; an admission fee is charged for the glasshouses only (2017).
Sight 10: Modellfort
The fort in Sanssouci Park was a fortress model to represent new gun technology with armor in fortifications at the end of the 19th century. The Krupp company had the model fort built in 1893 in the northwestern part of Potsdam's Sanssouci park in order to convince Kaiser Wilhelm II of the basic principles of the new technology. In November 2004, the ruins were filled in by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg and have not been open to the public since then.
Sight 11: Drachenhaus
Dragon House is a historical building in Potsdam, Germany, built by King Frederick the Great of Prussia on the southern slope of the Klausberg, which borders the northern edge of Sanssouci Park. It was constructed between 1770 and 1772 in the prevailing Chinoiserie taste of the time, designed to imitate a Chinese pagoda. Carl von Gontard was commissioned to build it. The house served as the residence of the vineyard's vintner.
Sight 12: Belvedere auf dem Klausberg
The Belvedere auf dem Klausberg is a building in Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Germany erected in 1770–72 using Georg Christian Unger's plans.
Sight 13: Teufelsbrücke
The Devil's Graben Bridge is a five-arched stone viaduct in Potsdam-Bornstedt, planned in 1843 by the architect Ludwig Persius and built as a pedestrian bridge. It leads over a drainage ditch of Lake Bornstedt leading into the Golmer Loch, which was created in the time of Frederick II. The construction of the bridge was part of the landscape park laid out by Peter Joseph Lenné on behalf of Frederick William IV, which connected the Bornstedt Crown Estate with Lindstedt Castle. The Devil's Ditch is now without water. This flows in clay pipes laid underground in 1891.
Wikipedia: Teufelsgrabenbrücke (Potsdam) (DE), Heritage Website
Sight 14: Bornstedter Friedhof
The Bornstedt cemetery is located directly opposite the Bornstedt Crown Estate in the immediate vicinity of the Potsdam Orangery. Not only residents of Bornstedt are buried on it, but also numerous personalities. Theodor Fontane already wrote: What dies in Sanssouci is buried in Bornstedt.
Wikipedia: Bornstedter Friedhof (DE), Website, Heritage Website
Sight 15: Bornstedter Kirche
The church of Bornstedt is a church building built in the 19th century in the Potsdam district of Bornstedt. It belongs to the Protestant church district of Potsdam of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia and is a listed building.
Wikipedia: Kirche Bornstedt (Potsdam) (DE), Website, Heritage Website
Sight 16: Krongut Bornstedt
The Bornstedt Crown Estate is a former royal estate and, today, a tourist attraction in the Potsdam borough of Bornstedt. It belongs to the ensemble of palaces and gardens of Sanssouci Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with other parks and palaces in the area.
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Disclaimer Please be aware of your surroundings and do not enter private property. We are not liable for any damages that occur during the tours.
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