Tours · Potsdam · Garden Temple
Temple of Friendship (Freundschaftstempel)
A small open rotunda of eight Corinthian columns that Frederick the Great raised in memory of his beloved sister Wilhelmine of Bayreuth. Inside sits her marble statue, surrounded by medallions of the great friendships of antiquity.
About this place
South of the Hauptallee, a short walk from the New Palace, stands the Temple of Friendship, built between 1768 and 1770 by Carl von Gontard as a memorial to Frederick the Great's sister Wilhelmine, Margravine of Bayreuth, who had died in 1758 on the very day of the king's defeat at Hochkirch. The open rotunda of pale sandstone rests on eight paired Corinthian columns beneath a shallow copper dome, and in its rear niche sits a marble statue of Wilhelmine with a book and her dog, carved by the Bayreuth sculptors Johann David and Johann Lorenz Wilhelm Räntz, who had known her in life. Medallions set into the columns show celebrated pairs of friends from classical mythology, Orestes and Pylades, Theseus and Pirithous, Nisus and Euryalus, Heracles and Philoctetes, placing the siblings' bond among the legendary friendships of antiquity. The temple forms a pair with the Antique Temple on the north side of the avenue, which Frederick built at the same time for his collection of ancient art and which later became the mausoleum of Empress Auguste Viktoria.
Key facts
- 1770 year — Temple completed in memory of Wilhelmine, twelve years after her death
- 8 columns — Paired Corinthian columns carry the open rotunda and its copper dome
- 1758 year — Wilhelmine died on 14 October, the day of Frederick's defeat at Hochkirch
📍 Ökonomieweg, 14469, Potsdam