Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [118]
Schloss Sanssouci & Around
The biggest stunner, and what everyone comes to see, is Schloss Sanssouci ( 969 4190; adult/concession incl audioguide Apr-Oct €12/8, incl tour or audioguide Nov-Mar €8/5; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun Apr-Oct, to 5pm Nov-Mar), the celebrated rococo palace designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff in 1747. The timed tickets sometimes sell out by noon – arrive early, preferably at opening, and avoid weekends and holidays. You can only enter the palace at the time printed on your ticket. Only city tours booked through the tourist office Click here guarantee entry to the Schloss.
Among the rooms you’ll see on your self-guided audio tour, the exquisite circular Bibliothek (Library), with its cedar panelling and gilded sunburst ceiling, is undoubtedly a highlight, even if you can only see it through a glass door. Other favourites include the Konzertsaal (Concert Room), playfully decorated with vines, grapes, seashells and even a cobweb where spiders frolic. The most elegant room is the domed Marmorhalle (Marble Hall), a symphony in white Carrara marble.
The ladies-in-waiting resided in the Damenflügel (Ladies’ Wing; adult/concession €2/1.50; 10am-6pm Sat & Sun May-Oct), added under Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1840. In the eastern wing is the Schlossküche (palace kitchen; adult/concession €3/2.50; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun Apr-Oct), whose pièce de résistance is a giant, wood-fired ‘cooking machine’.
As you exit the palace, don’t be fooled by the Ruinenberg, a pile of classical ‘ruins’ looming in the distance: they’re merely a folly conceived by Frederick the Great. East of the Schloss, the Bildergalerie (Picture Gallery; 969 4181; adult/concession €3/2.50; 10am-5pm Tue-Sun May-Oct), completed in 1763, houses a feast of 17th-century paintings by Rubens, Caravaggio, van Dyck and others. To the west, the Neue Kammern (New Chambers; 969 4206; adult/concession incl tour or audioguide €4/3; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun May-Oct) is a former orangery and guesthouse, whose fancy interior includes the festive Ovidsaal, a grand ballroom with a patterned marble floor surrounded by gilded reliefs. A bit further on, subtropical plants thrive in the Sizilianischer Garten (Sicilian Garden).
Orangerieschloss & Around
Maulbeerallee is the only road cutting straight through Park Sanssouci. North of it are a number of buildings, starting in the east with the Historische Mühle ( 550 6851; adult/child with tour €3/2, without tour €2.50/1.50; 10am-6pm daily Apr-Oct, 10am-4pm Sat & Sun Nov & Jan-Mar), a functioning replica of an 18th-century windmill. Admission lets you examine historic exhibits and, more interestingly, the enormous grinding mechanism.
The dominant building in this corner of the park is the elegantly ageing Orangerieschloss (Orangery Palace; 969 4280; mandatory tour adult/concession €4/3; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun May-Oct). It’s a 300m-long Renaissance-style palace built in 1864 by Italophile Friedrich Wilhelm IV as a guesthouse for visiting royalty. There are some nice views from the tower (admission €2) but otherwise the most interesting room is the Raphaelsaal, featuring 19th-century copies of the painter’s masterpieces.
From the Orangery, a tree-lined path forms a visual axis to the rococo Belvedere auf dem Klausberg ( 969 4206; admission €2; 10am-6pm Sat & Sun May-Oct), a temple-like pavilion whose sumptuous interior was beautifully restored following war damage. En route, you’ll pass the Drachenhaus (Dragon House; 1770), a fantastical Chinese palace inspired by the Ta-Ho pagoda in Canton and guarded by an entire army of dragons. It now houses a pleasant cafe-restaurant Click here.
Neues Palais
At the far western end of the park, the Neues Palais (New Palace; 969 4361; adult/concession with tour or audioguide €6/5; 10am-6pm Wed-Mon Apr-Oct, to 5pm Nov-Mar) has made-to-impress dimensions, a central dome and a lavish exterior decorated with a parade of sandstone figures. It was the last palace built by Frederick