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Chinese House (Potsdam)

1764 establishments in the Holy Roman EmpireBaroque architecture in PotsdamBuildings and structures completed in 1764Buildings and structures in PotsdamChinoiserie
Prussian cultural sitesRococo architecture of GermanySanssouci Park
Chinesisches Teehaus Potsdam IMG 3489
Chinesisches Teehaus Potsdam IMG 3489

The Chinese House (German: Chinesisches Haus) is a garden pavilion in Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Germany. Frederick the Great had it built, about seven hundred metres southwest of the Sanssouci Summer Palace, to adorn his flower and vegetable garden. The garden architect was Johann Gottfried Büring, who between 1755 and 1764 designed the pavilion in the then-popular style of Chinoiserie, a mixture of ornamental rococo elements and parts of Chinese architecture.The unusually long building time of nine years is attributed to the Seven Years' War, during which Prussia's economic and financial situation suffered significantly. Only after the end of the war in 1763 were the chambers inside the pavilion furnished. As the building served not only as a decorative piece of garden architecture but also as a setting for small social events, Frederick the Great ordered the building of a Chinese Kitchen, a few metres south-east of the Chinese House. After a conversion in 1789, only the hexagonal windows show the Oriental character of the former outbuilding. A few years later, the Dragon House was built in the form of a Chinese pagoda on the northern edge of Sanssouci Park bordering Klausberg. The building was Frederick the Great's attempt to follow the Chinese fashion of the 18th century, which began in France before spreading to England, Germany, and Russia.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Chinese House (Potsdam) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Chinese House (Potsdam)
Jagowweg, Potsdam Bornstedt

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N 52.400277777778 ° E 13.031944444444 °
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Park Sanssouci

Jagowweg
14469 Potsdam, Bornstedt
Brandenburg, Germany
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Chinesisches Teehaus Potsdam IMG 3489
Chinesisches Teehaus Potsdam IMG 3489
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Roman Baths (Potsdam)
Roman Baths (Potsdam)

The Roman Baths (German: die Römischen Bäder), situated northeast of the Charlottenhof Palace in the Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, reflect the Italiensehnsucht ("Sehnsucht/longing for Italy") of its creator Frederick William IV of Prussia. Various classical Roman and antique Italian styles were melded into an architectural ensemble, created between 1829 and 1840. While still crown prince, Frederick William commissioned both Charlottenhof (1826-1829) and the Roman Baths (1834-1840). Coming up with numerous ideas and drawing many actual drafts, the artistically inclined heir to the throne had considerable influence on the plans of the architect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Charged with managing the actual construction was one of Schinkel's students, Ludwig Persius. The gardener's house (Gärtnerhaus) (1829–30) and the adjacent house for the gardener's helpers (Gärtnergehilfenhaus) (1832) were both built in Italian country villa style (Landhausstil). The Roman Bath, which gave its name to the ensemble in its entirety, was styled after ancient villas. Together with a small tea pavilion (Teepavillon) (1830), modelled on temples of classical antiquity, they form a complex of buildings tied together by pergolas, arcades and garden spaces. The individual buildings were largely inspired by Schinkel's second trip to Italy in 1828. Thus the Roman Bath, which has never actually been used as a bathing facility, came into being thanks purely to the romantic fantasy of the royal Italophile. The names of the rooms connote a mixture of antique villas and Roman baths. The atrium, the courtyard of a Roman house, is the reception area. The Impluvium, actually only a glorified rainwater-collection device, gives its name to the whole room in which it is located. The Viridarium (greenhouse) is actually a small garden. Additional names associated with Roman thermal baths are Apodyterium for the changing room and Caldarium. The whole nostalgic creation is on the bank of an artificial lake created during Peter Joseph Lenné's landscaping of the Charlottenhof grounds. The so-called machine pond (Maschinenteich) gets its name from a steam engine building and an adjacent pumping station torn down in 1923. The large hull of a well marks the location of the former building. The steam engine was not just responsible for keeping the artificial waters of Charlottenhof moving – its smokestacks were also a symbol of progress and what was at its time advanced technology.

Sanssouci
Sanssouci

Sanssouci (German pronunciation: [ˈsãːsusi]) 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 (sans souci) that translates as "without concerns", meaning "without worries" or "carefree", emphasising that the palace was meant as a place of relaxation, rather than a seat of power. Sanssouci is little more than a large, single-story 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". Because of a disagreement about the site of the palace in the park, Knobelsdorff was fired in 1746. Jan Bouman, a Dutch architect, finished the project. During the 19th century, the palace became a residence of Frederick William IV. He employed the architect Ludwig Persius to restore and enlarge the palace, while Ferdinand von Arnim was charged with improving the grounds and thus the view from the palace. The town of Potsdam, with its palaces, was a favourite place of residence for the German imperial family until the fall of the Hohenzollern dynasty in 1918. After World War II, the palace became a tourist attraction in East Germany. Following German reunification in 1990, Frederick's body was returned to the palace and buried in a new tomb overlooking the gardens he had created. Sanssouci and its extensive gardens became a World Heritage Site in 1990 under the protection of UNESCO; in 1995, the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg was established to care for Sanssouci and the other former imperial palaces in and around Berlin. These palaces are now visited by more than two million people each year from all over the world.

Botanical Garden, Potsdam
Botanical Garden, Potsdam

The Botanical Garden in Potsdam (German: Botanischer Garten Potsdam or Botanischer Garten der Universität 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). The garden was established in 1950 on two adjacent plots of land: part of the Sanssouci Park, and the Paradise Garden (about 2.5 hectares). After World War II, the Sanssouci park was controlled by the Red Army, and briefly formed a branch of the Moscow Botanical Garden of Academy of Sciences. In 1950 today's garden was created at the northern edge of Sanssouci with the Maulbeerallee dividing the garden into two distinct areas. To the north is the Paradise Garden, now a teaching and display garden; and to the south side is the institute building, greenhouses, and outdoor space. Today the garden cultivates about 9,000 taxa, with excellent collections of succulents (880), Begoniaceae (89 spp.), Araceae (c.250 spp.), Aizoaceae (c.260 spp.), Haworthia (55 spp.), ferns (230), Australian Proteaceae, orchids (320), chimaeras, invasive species, and Chinese medical herbs. The garden cultivates about 4,000 taxa outdoors, including 50 species from Brandenburg that are threatened with extinction. Major outdoor sections include an arboretum; collections from East Asia and Eurasian steppes; the Central European deciduous forest; North American prairies; an alpine garden; rhododendrons; wild flowers; a rose garden; marsh and aquatic plants; morphological gardens illustrating a variety of leaves, shoots, roots, flowers, and fruit; useful plants including dyeing, fiber, and food crops; medicinal and aromatic plants; and protected and endangered plants from Germany. The garden's ten greenhouses (approximately 3,000 m2 total area) contain about 4,600 tropical and subtropical species in a palm house, epiphyte house, orchid house, fern house, cactus house, aquarium house, Victoria house, etc. These houses also contain coffee and cocoa trees, sugarcane, cotton, cassava, guava, begonias, and carnivorous plants.