Orangery Palace (Orangerieschloss)
A 300 metre Italian Renaissance palace stretched along the ridge above Park Sanssouci, built by the 'Romantic on the throne' Frederick William IV. Inside waits a hall of fifty Raphael copies; above, twin towers with the best view in the park.
About this place
The Orangery Palace is the last and largest palace built in Park Sanssouci, raised between 1851 and 1864 for King Frederick William IV, who sketched its first designs himself after the Villa Medici in Rome and the Uffizi in Florence. It was meant to be a single jewel on a two kilometre Triumphal Avenue running along the ridge to the Belvedere on the Klausberg, but the revolution of 1848 and empty coffers reduced that dream to this one building. Architects Persius, Stüler and Hesse gave it a central block with twin towers linked by a walkable colonnade, flanked by two plant halls, each 103 metres long, where more than one thousand tub plants from the park still spend every winter. At its heart lies the Raphael Hall, a red silk lined gallery with more than fifty nineteenth century copies of Raphael's paintings, including the Sistine Madonna, beside lavish guest apartments such as the Malachite Room fitted out for Tsar Nicholas I and his wife Charlotte, the king's sister. The tower platform offers a sweeping view over the park, the Historic Windmill and the Bornstedt estate.
Key facts
- 300 metres — Length of the palace front, making it the largest palace in Park Sanssouci
- 50 paintings — Copies of Raphael's works fill the red silk lined Raphael Hall
- 1000 tub plants — Oranges, palms and laurels from the park overwinter in the two plant halls
📍 An der Orangerie 3-5, 14469, Potsdam