Orangery Palace

The Orangerieschloss stands in the Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, a grand palace built between 1851 and 1864 for King Frederick William IV. It was designed by architects Friedrich August Stüler, Friedrich Ludwig Persius and Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse in the Italian Renaissance style. The building stretches 300 metres along its front, with a central section topped by twin towers. A 103-metre-long Plant Hall runs alongside, its tall windows letting in light for tropical plants. The western hall still has its original floor duct heating system in working order. The palace holds the two-storey Raffael Hall, modelled on the Vatican’s Sala Regia, where over fifty Renaissance paintings and frescoes copied from Frederick William IV’s father’s collection are displayed. The royal guest rooms were prepared in the second Rococo style for Tsar Nicholas I and his wife, the king’s favourite sister Charlotte. Between 1949 and 2010 the eastern wing housed the Brandenburg State Main Archive. The palace became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. Outside, the gardens designed by Peter Joseph Lenné include the Paradise Garden with exotic plants, the Norse Garden with pines, and the Sicilian Garden with palm tubs, myrtles and fountains. A small atrium building in the centre was added in 1845. The current Botanical Garden nearby is used by the University of Potsdam for teaching. The palace’s long terraces and staircases offer views across the park towards the Belvedere on Klausberg.