About this place
The Museum Barberini looks as though it has presided over Potsdam's old market square for centuries, but almost everything you see was rebuilt within the last decade. The original palace was commissioned in 1771 by Frederick the Great, who ordered his architects to model it on the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Destroyed in the final weeks of the Second World War and later cleared away under East German rule, the building was resurrected stone by stone through the fortune and vision of Hasso Plattner, the software billionaire who co founded SAP. Reopened in 2017 as an art museum, it now houses Plattner's remarkable Impressionist collection, alongside blockbuster exhibitions that have made this quiet Prussian square a genuine cultural destination.
Key facts
- 34 Monets — Paintings by Claude Monet on display, the most anywhere in Europe outside Paris
- 1771 year — Frederick the Great commissioned the original Barberini palace on this square
- 2017 year — The rebuilt palace reopened its doors as a world-class art museum
📍 Humboldtstraße 5-6, 14467, Potsdam