Tours · Potsdam · Landmark & Cafe
Belvedere on the Klausberg & Dragon House
Frederick the Great's last building, a Roman style viewing pavilion, crowns the Klausberg hill, while sixteen gilded dragons guard the Chinese pagoda below, now a cafe. The perfect place to end the loop with a view and a slice of cake.
About this place
The Klausberg, the ridge along the northern edge of Park Sanssouci, holds the final two buildings Frederick the Great added to his park. The Belvedere, built from 1770 to 1772 by Georg Christian Unger, is a round, two storey pavilion with a colonnade and dome modelled on an eighteenth century reconstruction of Emperor Nero's palace in Rome. It was the first building in Potsdam designed purely as a lookout, and after burning out in the last days of the Second World War it stood as a ruin until a painstaking restoration in the 1990s gave it back its stucco marble hall and painted dome. Just down the slope stands the Dragon House, an octagonal Chinese pagoda by Carl von Gontard, built in the same years beside the king's new vineyard and named for the sixteen gilded dragons perched on its curved roofs. Intended as a home for the vintner, who never actually moved in, it has been a coffee house for more than a century and makes a welcoming end to the walk.
Key facts
- 16 dragons — Gilded dragons perch on the curved roof edges of the Dragon House
- 1772 year — Both buildings were completed, the last that Frederick the Great added to the park
- 1945 year — The Belvedere burned out in the final days of the war and stood as a ruin for decades
📍 Maulbeerallee 4, 14469, Potsdam