The magnificent landscaped gardens at Potsdam have been called the Versailles of Germany. There are more than 20 castles and palaces in the area and few grander than the Neues Palais, below, which stands at the end of the long avenue running through Sanssouci Park.
	New Palace
	Inside of New Palace

Sanssouci Park and New Palace

Walking through the finely manicured gardens of Potsdam there is the same air of tranquillity that Prussia's most famous king, Frederick the Great, must have sensed nearly 300 years ago.

Frederick spent more time here at his summer residence, Sanssouci, than at the official court in Berlin. It is not difficult to understand why. Frederick was an aesthetic ruler and he clearly fell for the sheer beauty of the sleepy township lost among the hills, meadows and lakes of this rural corner of mighty Prussia.

Sanssouci is at the heart of the magnificently landscaped park and its cultured lawns, very similar to Versailles. Its name means "without worries" in French, the language Frederick tried to cultivate in his own private circle and within the court.

Sanssouci Palace, built on the mount of a finely sculptured vineyard hill, is arguably the finest example of rococo in Europe. Cascading below it are broad south-facing terraces where Frederick planted his vines and at the opposite end of the 750-acre park is the ostentatious New Palace (Neues Palais). The New Palace was the last and simultaneously the largest building to be built in Sanssouci Park in the 18th century. It was erected between 1763 and 1769 according to plans by Johann Gottfried Büring and Carl von Gontard for Frederick, who wanted the imposing palace structure to demonstrate that the Silesian wars had not ruined the state.

It is no surprise that Potsdam was always the residence of choice for Prussia's kings and royal families. The former fishing village on the Havel River, 25 kilometres southwest of Berlin, was seldom subjected to the stifling summer heat that is the capital's trademark. Not much has changed since then. Berliners still flee the city at the first opportunity for the cooler suburbs and the Potsdam area, surrounded by the Havel River, 19 lakes and refreshing breezes, remains a popular destination.

There is an imposing sense of grandeur wherever one goes in Potsdam and, inevitably, there is a castle as a backdrop. In the southern part of Sanssouci Park, standing in its own grounds, is the Charlottenhof Castle. After Frederick died in 1786, the ambitious Sanssouci building program ground to a halt and the park fell into neglect. It took 50 years before Frederick William III restored Sanssouci's earlier glory and had the Charlottenhof built. The final addition in Sanssouci Park was the Caecilienhof. Built in 1913 on the banks of Lake Heiliger, it resembles a rambling half-timbered country manor house.