About this place
Standing on the eastern edge of the Alter Markt, the Altes Rathaus looks less like a municipal office and more like an Italian palazzo transplanted to Brandenburg. Frederick the Great commissioned it between 1753 and 1755, dressing his royal residence in the manners of an ancient Roman forum, and his architects borrowed a Palladio design for a villa near Vicenza that Italy itself never built. Life-sized sandstone virtues line the roof, and a gilded statue of the Titan Atlas crowns the domed tower, bearing the globe on his shoulders. Once home to a jail, then a savings bank, the building today houses the Potsdam Museum and its collections on the city's long history.
Key facts
- 1755 year — Frederick the Great completed the Palladian town hall on the Alter Markt
- 1877 year — The current gilded Atlas was raised after the original toppled under its own weight
- 1875 year — The tower held the city jail, nicknamed the 'Doll House', until this year
📍 Am Alten Markt 9, 14467, Potsdam