July 9, 2023 - Germany
Potsdam Palaces:  Sanssouci and the New Palace

This was Frederick the Great’s summer residence.

Sanssouci is little more than a large, single-storey villa—more like the Château de Marly than Versailles. Containing just ten principal rooms, it was built on the brow of a terraced hill at the centre of the park. The influence of King Frederick's personal taste in the design and decoration of the palace was so great that its style is characterised as "Frederician Rococo", and his feelings for the palace were so strong that he conceived it as "a place that would die with him".

Frederick selected the Rococo style of architecture for Sanssouci. The light, almost whimsical style then in vogue exactly suited the light-hearted uses for which he required this retreat. The Rococo style of art emerged in France in the early 18th century as a continuation of the Baroque style, but in contrast with the heavier themes and darker colours of the Baroque, the Rococo was characterised by an opulence, grace, playfulness, and lightness.

Sans Souci means "without a care".  It was built between 1745 and 1747.
   
Map of the grounds.  Sanssouci is to the right.  The New Palace is at lower left.  As you can see, the grounds are quite large.
   

Frederick II (1712 – 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Royal Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his reorganisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great and was nicknamed "Old Fritz".

Napoleon Bonaparte saw the Prussian king as a military commander of the first rank;  after Napoleon's victory over the Fourth Coalition in 1807, he visited Frederick's tomb in Potsdam and remarked to his officers, "Gentlemen, if this man were still alive I would not be here".  Napoleon frequently "pored through Frederick's campaign narratives and had a statuette of him placed in his personal cabinet".

Below is a famous portrait of Frederick the Great by Anton Graff  in 1781.
   
Europe at the time when Frederick came to the throne in 1740, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet
   
Europe at the time of Frederick's death in 1786. Prussia's territory has been greatly extended by his Silesian Wars, his inheritance of East Frisia and the First Partition of Poland.
   

 This Greek-looking thing surrounded the front of the Palace.
   

The Entrance Hall.

The walls of the rectangular room were subdivided by ten pairs of Corinthian columns made of white stucco marble with gilded capitals. Three overdoor reliefs with themes from the myth of Bacchus reflected the vineyard theme created outside. Georg Franz Ebenhech was responsible for gilded stucco works. The strict classical elegance was relieved by a painted ceiling executed by the Swedish-born painter Johann Harper, depicting the goddess Flora with her acolytes, throwing flowers down from the sky.
   
Leaving the entrance hall, we proceeded down this narrow but spectacular hallway.  We had audio guides in English which explained everything.
   
The Library.  The bookcases contained approximately 2,100 volumes of Greek and Roman writings and historiographies and also a collection of French literature of the 17th and 18th centuries with a heavy emphasis on the works of Voltaire. The books were bound in brown or red goat leather and richly gilded.
   
The King's study and bedroom, where he lived and worked.  Remodelled after Frederick's death in 1786, it is now in direct contrast to the rococo rooms. Here, the clean and plain lines of classicism now rule. However, Frederick's desk and the armchair in which he died were returned to the room in the middle of the 19th century.
   
On the morning of 17 August 1786, Frederick died in this armchair in his study at Sanssouci, aged 74.
   
A painting of Frederick the Great's death.
   
The Music Room
   

The oval domed Marble Hall.

Five guest rooms adjoined the Marble Hall to the west, while the King's apartments lay to the east - an audience room, music room, study, bedroom, library, and a long gallery on the north side.

The white-and-gold oval Marmorsaal ("Marble Hall"), as the principal reception room, was the setting for celebrations in the palace, its dome crowned by a cupola. White Carrara marble was used for the paired columns, above which stucco putti dangle their feet from the cornice. The dome is white with gilded ornament, and the floor is of Italian marble intarsia inlaid in compartments radiating from a central trelliswork oval. Three arch-headed windows face the garden; opposite them, in two niches flanking the doorway, figures of Venus Urania, the goddess of free nature and life, and Apollo, the god of the arts, by the French sculptor François Gaspard Adam, established the iconography of Sanssouci as a place where art was joined with nature.
   
Very ornate.
   
Statue in the Marble Hall.
   
One of the five guest rooms, in which were lodged those friends of the King considered intimate enough to be invited to this most private of his palaces. Two of Frederick's visitors were sufficiently distinguished and frequent that the rooms they occupied were named after them:  the Count of Rothenburg and Voltaire.
 
The Voltaire Room, pictured below, was frequently occupied by the philosopher during his stay in Potsdam between 1750 and 1753.  The Voltaire Room was remarkable for its decoration, which gave it the alternative name of the "Flower Room". On a yellow lacquered wall panel were superimposed, colourful, richly adorned wood carvings. Apes, parrots, cranes, storks, fruits, flowers, garlands gave the room a cheerful and natural character.  Voltaire must have been a short man to fit in that little bed.
 
François-Marie Arouet (1694 – 1778), known by his nom de plume M. de Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity (especially of the Roman Catholic Church) and of slavery, Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state.
 
Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, histories, but also scientific expositions. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets.  Voltaire was one of the first authors to become renowned and commercially successful internationally.
   
What palace tour would be complete without a rework of the Frederick the Great's portrait by Andy Warhol.  The Prussian King is probably rolling over in his grave.  Which is here at Sanssouci on the vineyard terrace although we did not see it.
   
Without a care!
   
Looking out over the Baroque ornamental garden, modelled on the parterre at Versailles, constructed in 1745. The Great Fountain was built at the centre of this garden in 1748. Frederick never saw the fountain playing because the engineers employed in the construction had little understanding of the hydraulics involved. From 1750, marble statues were placed around the basin of the fountain.
   

The south-facing garden façade. Frederick the Great ignored his architect's advice to place the principle floor up high.  As a result, the palace failed to take maximum advantage of its location. Its windows are devoid of views, and seen from its lower terraces it appears to be more of an orangery than a palace.

Looking back at the Palace gives a good look at the terraced vineyards.
   
 
   
 
   
A good look at the statues around the Great Fountain.
   
 
   
 
   
Way down at the end of this long walkway is the New Palace.
   
Our first look at the New Palace.  This is the rear of the palace.  The New Palace was built to wow guests and disprove rumors that Prussia was running out of money after the costly Seven Years' War.  Frederick the Great had it built 20 years after Sanssouci.
   
The New Palace has more than 200 rooms.   Frederick the Great "rarely stayed here -- it was mostly used to host guests and dazzle visiting dignitaries.  But other Prussian kings -- and later German emperors -- called it home.  ... Kaiser Wilhelm II lived here until 1918."  ... Rick Steves
   
The front of the New Palace.
   
Waiting for our timed entry.
   
Inside the large Grotto Hall.  The marble walls are encrusted with a quarter of a million seashells, semiprecious stones, and fossils.
 
A German woman was our tour guide.  She spoke impeccable English and took her job very seriously, like almost every Germans we encountered, no matter what job it was.
   
Another Grotto Hall picture.
   
The Marble Hall, with 52-foot high ceiling painting and floors inlaid with Silesian marble.
   
Marble Hall.
   
More Marble Hall.
   
Nice floor!
   
Marble Hall.
   
Painting in Marble Hall.
   

The Turko-Mongolian conqueror Tamerlane (1336-1405) celebrates victory over the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I.   Timur invaded Anatolia and defeated Bayezid in the Battle of Ankara on 20 July 1402.

Tamerlane, also referred to as Timur,  founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeated commander, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest military leaders and tacticians in history, as well as one of the most brutal and deadly.  Timur was the last of the great nomadic conquerors of the Eurasian Steppe.  He was of both Turkic and Mongol descent, and, while probably not a direct descendant on either side, he shared a common ancestor with Genghis Khan on his father's side.  Timur envisioned the restoration of the Mongol Empire and according to Gérard Chaliand, saw himself as Genghis Khan's (1162-1227) heir.

By the end of his reign, Timur had gained complete control over all the remnants of the Chagatai Khanate, the Ilkhanate, and the Golden Horde. Timur's armies were inclusively multi-ethnic and were feared throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, sizable parts of which his campaigns laid waste.  Scholars estimate that his military campaigns caused the deaths of millions of people.
   
More art.
   
This is the Gentlemen's Bedchamber.  Kaiser Frederick II died in that red-canopy bed in 1888.  He must not have been very tall.
   
 
   
Pretty fancy!
   
 
   
Not sure what room this is.
   
Across from the New Palace is this fancy building.  You'll never guess its' function.  The Servants Quarters!
   
A look at the entire servant's quarters.
   
Not bad.
   
Romanesque gate.
   
Archer in the backyard.
   
Historic old windmill by the Palaces entrance.
 
It was a long walk back to the parking lot, but overall we really enjoyed visiting the two palaces.
   
 
   
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