Potsdam - Sightseeings & Informations

Potsdam is a city on the Havel River, located 60 km from Berlin. It first mentioned in 993 as a Slavic settlement. The city becomes German in the middle of the XII century, and in the XIII century Potsdam receives the rights of the city.

In the 18th-19th centuries, Potsdam was the summer residence of the Prussian kings, a place for military parades and reviews. Historical and cultural sights of Potsdam include a number of palaces and palaces and parks: the City Palace (1745-81) and several former royal palaces of the 18th-19th centuries.

The Sanssouci palace and park ensemble, to which Potsdam owes its world fame, is especially famous. It includes a regular French park and a masterpiece of Germanic Rococo, the Sanssouci Palace, built in 1744-47 for the Prussian king Frederick II. The palace is located above six terraces of a stepped green parterre with grape greenhouses and is separated by only three steps from the green area, to which it faces with a continuous front of glazed doors. The facade of the palace is associated with the park by figures of nymphs, satyrs and caryatids. The interiors of the palace are decorated in rococo and classicism styles.

In 1990, UNESCO included this architectural ensemble in the list of cultural heritage of mankind. Crowds of tourists from all over the world and residents of the city today walk along the paths of this park, and some comfortably settle down to lie on its green lawns. It is worth admiring Potsdam from the water, taking a boat ride past historic sites and picturesque surroundings all the way to Berlin.

In addition to Sanssouci and Babelsberg, there is a lot of interesting things in Potsdam. The powerful city gates of the 16th century demonstrate the city's former military power. Today these fortifications of the past are nothing more than romantic elements of urban architecture. The luxurious homes of the wealthy citizens of the Gründer era testify to the high level of wealth at the beginning of the 19th century.

Potsdam is synonymous with the history of German cinematography. At the Babelsberg Film Studios, Fritz Lang and Fritz Murnau worked on the films Nibelungen and Faust, which became landmarks in the history of cinema in the 1920s. Here the incomparable Marlene Dietrich starred in The Blue Angel.

For movie lovers, the excursion to the Babelsberg Film Studio is still an event. The Museum of the History of Cinema contains sets from legendary German films. And those who dream of taking a look behind the scenes can head to the Babelsberg cinema park to see how stuntmen work or scenes for new films are shot. Babelsberg remains the Hollywood of Germany today.