Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve in Brandenburg

20 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, Environment, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

Glambecker Mühle © Uckermaerker/cc-by-sa-3.0

Glambecker Mühle © Uckermaerker/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve, often shortened to Schorfheide, is a biosphere reserve in the German State of Brandenburg near the Polish border. The reserve was established on 1 October 1990 following the German Reunification and is under the protection of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve Programme. It stretches over the German districts of Barnim, Uckermark, Märkisch-Oderland and Oberhavel and incorporates an area of 1,291 square kilometres (498 sq mi). Notable towns are Eberswalde, Joachimsthal and Friedrichswalde. The core area of the reserve is formed by the Schorfheide forest, one of the largest cohesive woodlands in Germany.   read more…

St. Nicholas Church in Potsdam

13 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Berlin Reading Time:  12 minutes

© Bärwinkel,Klaus/cc-by-3.0

© Bärwinkel,Klaus/cc-by-3.0

St. Nicholas Church (German: St. Nikolaikirche) in Potsdam is a Lutheran church under the Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia of the Evangelical Church in Germany on the Old Market Square (Alter Markt) in Potsdam. The central plan building in the Classicist style and dedicated to Saint Nicholas was built to plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the years 1830 to 1837.   read more…

New Garden in Potsdam

14 May 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Berlin, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Old Dairy-Farm on Jungfernsee, today a restaurant © Biberbaer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Old Dairy-Farm on Jungfernsee, today a restaurant © Biberbaer/cc-by-sa-3.0

The New Garden (German: Neuer Garten) in Potsdam is a park of 102.5 hectares located southwest of Berlin, Germany, in northern Potsdam and bordering on the lakes Heiliger See and Jungfernsee. Starting in 1787, Frederick William II of Prussia (1744-1797) arranged to have a new garden laid out on this site, and it came to be known by this rather prosaic name. The New Garden is one of the ensembles comprising the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin,” a status awarded in 1990.   read more…

Theme Week Potsdam – Cecilienhof Palace

13 November 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Berlin, Hotels, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  14 minutes

© Gryffindor

© Gryffindor

Cecilienhof Palace is a palace in Potsdam, Brandenburg built from 1914 to 1917 in the layout of an English Tudor manor house. Cecilienhof was the last palace built by the House of Hohenzollern that ruled the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire until the end of World War I. Cecilienhof has been part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. Cecilienhof is located in the northern part of the large New Garden park, close to the shore of the Jungfernsee lake. The park was laid out from 1787 at the behest of King Frederick William II of Prussia, modelled on the Wörlitz Park in Anhalt-Dessau. Frederick William II also had the Marmorpalais (Marble Palace) built within the Neuer Garten, the first Brandenburg palace in the Neoclassical style erected according to plans designed by Carl von Gontard and Carl Gotthard Langhans, which was finished in 1793. Other structures within the park close to Schloss Cecilienhof include an orangery, an artificial grotto (Muschelgrotte), the “Gothic Library”, and the Dairy in the New Garden, also constructed for King Frederick William II. The park was largely redesigned as an English landscape garden according to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné from 1816 onwards, with lines of sight to nearby Pfaueninsel, Glienicke Palace, Babelsberg Palace, and the Church of the Redeemer.   read more…

Rheinsberg Palace in Brandenburg

10 November 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  9 minutes

Rheinsberg Palace on Lake Grienerik/Pelz-cc-by-sa-3.0

Rheinsberg Palace on Lake Grienerik/Pelz-cc-by-sa-3.0

Rheinsberg Palace lies in the municipality of Rheinsberg, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of Berlin in the German district of Ostprignitz-Ruppin. The palace on the eastern shore of the Grienericksee is a classic example of the so-called Frederician Rococo architecture style and served as a basis for Sanssouci Palace. The palace rose to literary fame when it was described by Theodor Fontane in his book Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg (“Walks through the March of Brandenburg“) and by Kurt Tucholsky in his Rheinsberg. Ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte (“Rheinsberg. A Picture Book for Those in Love”). Until expropriation in 1945, Rheinsberg Palace was owned by the House of Hohenzollern.   read more…

Theme Week Potsdam – Sanssouci Park

23 December 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Berlin, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  12 minutes

Sanssouci © Mbzt/cc-by-sa-3.0

Sanssouci © Mbzt/cc-by-sa-3.0

Sanssouci Park is a large park surrounding Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, the surroundings were included in the structure. A baroque flower garden with lawns, flower beds, hedges and trees was created. In the hedge quarter 3,000 fruit trees were planted. The greenhouses of the numerous nurseries contained oranges, melons, peaches and bananas. The goddesses Flora and Pomona, who decorate the entrance obelisk at the eastern park exit, were placed there to highlight the connection of a flower, fruit and vegetable garden. With the expansion of the site after the creation of more buildings, a 2.5 km long straight main avenue was built. It began in the east at the 1748 obelisk and over the years was extended all the way to the New Palace, which marks its end in the west. In 1764 the picture gallery was constructed, followed by the New Chambers in 1774. They flank the palace and open the alley up to rondels with the fountains, surrounded by marble statues. From there paths lead in a star pattern between tall hedges to further parts of the gardens.   read more…

The Holy Lake in Potsdam

16 October 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Berlin Reading Time:  5 minutes

Heiliger See, with Marble Palace © Matthias v.d. Elbe/cc-by-sa-3.0

Heiliger See, with Marble Palace © Matthias v.d. Elbe/cc-by-sa-3.0

Heiliger See (English: Holy Lake) is a lake within the city limits of Potsdam, located northeast of the city center and bordering the historic park known as the New Garden. Together with the lakes Sacrower See and Groß Glienicker See to the north it forms a chain of lakes resulting from a glacial tunnel valley. The lake is 1.33 km long and 300 metres wide on average.   read more…

The water town Fürstenberg on the Havel

9 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Brandenburger Strasse with Havel church bell tower © Christopher Voitus/cc-by-sa-3.0

Brandenburger Strasse with Havel church bell tower © Christopher Voitus/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fürstenberg is a town in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. Until 1950, Fürstenberg was part of the former Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Fürstenberg is situated on the River Havel, 21 kilometres (13 mi) south of Neustrelitz, and 75 kilometres (47 mi) north of Berlin.   read more…

The biosphere reserve Spreewald

23 February 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Environment, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

Spreewaldgurke - Cucumber of the Spree Forest © spreewald-info.de

Spreewaldgurke – Cucumber of the Spree Forest © spreewald-info.de

The Spreewald (German for “Spree forest”) is situated 100 km south-east of Berlin and designated a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1991. It is known for its traditional irrigation system which consists of more than 200 small channels (called “Fließe”; total length : 1,300 km ) within the 484-square-kilometre (187 sq mi) area. The landscape was shaped during the ice-age. Alder forests on wetlands and pine forests on sandy dry areas are characteristic for the region, however, also grasslands and fields can be found.   read more…

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