Chinese House (Potsdam)

Sanssouci Park is a large park surrounding Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany, built under Frederick the Great in the mid-1700s. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, the surroundings were included in the structure. A baroque flower garden with lawns, flower beds, hedges and trees was created. In the hedge quarter 3,000 fruit trees were planted. The greenhouses of the numerous nurseries contained oranges, melons, peaches and bananas. The goddesses Flora and Pomona, who decorate the entrance obelisk at the eastern park exit, were placed there to highlight the connection of a flower, fruit and vegetable garden. Along with the Sanssouci Palace and other neaby palaces and parks, Sanssouci Park was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1990 for its unique architectural unity and testimony to 18th and 19th century landscaping in Europe.

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.

The New Chambers (German: Neue Kammern) is part of the ensemble of Sanssouci palace in Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, Germany. They were constructed for King Frederick the Great of Prussia from 1771 to 1775.

The Orangery Palace (German: Orangerieschloss) is a palace located in the Sanssouci Park of Potsdam, Germany. It is also known as the New Orangery on the Klausberg, or just the Orangery. It was built on behest of the "Romantic on the Throne", King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (Frederick William IV of Prussia) from 1851 to 1864.

The Historic Mill of Sanssouci is a mill in Potsdam, Germany. Thanks to the legend of The Miller of Sanssouci (German: Der Müller von Sanssouci), the Mill (Historische Mühle) became famous, particularly due to its association with Frederick the Great and his summer palace of 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.

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.

Charlottenhof Palace or Charlottenhof Manor (German: Schloss Charlottenhof) is a former royal palace located southwest of Sanssouci Palace in Sanssouci Park at Potsdam, Germany. It is best known as the summer residence of Crown Prince Frederick William (later King Frederick William IV of Prussia). Today it is maintained by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg.

Potsdam Charlottenhof is a railway station in the city of Potsdam, the state capital of Brandenburg, Germany. The ensemble is a protected monument.

The Picture Gallery (German: Bildergalerie) in the Sanssouci Park of Potsdam was built in 1755–64 during the reign of Frederick II of Prussia under the supervision of Johann Gottfried Büring. The Picture Gallery is situated east of the palace and is the oldest extant museum built for a ruler in Germany.

The Neptune Grotto (German: Neptungrotte) close to the Obelisk entrance in Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, was created by Frederick the Great between 1751 and 1757 to beautify the park. Built following plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff it arose as a representation of the revived interest in garden architecture. The grotto ought to have been a component of the numerous fountains of the park, which did not function at that time, owing to a lack of technical knowledge. The trident wielding god of the sea, Neptune, establishes a relationship to water. The conches on the sides, arranged into the shape of waterfalls and the great shell inside, made from many real shells, are a characteristic theme of Rococo.

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.