Germany, UNESCO site: Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin;

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Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin

UNESCO site
Date of Insscription: 1990

The Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin (Sanssouci) represent a self-contained ensemble of architecture and landscape gardening in the 18th and 19th centuries. This ensemble, having an outstanding artistic rank, has its origin in the work of the most significant architects and landscape gardeners of their time in Northern Germany - G.W. von Knobelsdorff (1699-1753), C. von Gontard (1731-1791), C.G. Langhans (1732-1808), K.F. Schinkel (1781-1841), P.J. Lenné (1789-1866) and their co-operators. Together with highly imaginative sculptors, painters, craftsmen, building workers, and gardeners, they created Sanssouci, the New Garden, the Park of Babelsberg, and other grounds in the surrounding area of Potsdam as an overall work of art of high quality, European rank, and international standing.

The World Heritage property enfolds the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin including buildings, parks, and designed spaces, which are intuitively, territorially and historically aligned with Sacrow Castle and Park and the Sauveur Church.

The cultural landscape with its parks and buildings was designed and constructed between 1730 and 1916 in a beautiful region of rivers, lakes, and hills. The underlying concept of Potsdam was carried out according to Peter Joseph Lenné’s plans, which he designed after the mid-1800s, to transform the Havel landscape into the cultural landscape it is today. These designs still determine the layout of Potsdam’s cultural landscape. The ensemble of parks of Potsdam is a cultural property of exceptional quality. It forms an artistic whole, whose eclectic nature reinforces its sense of uniqueness.

In Potsdam, the World Heritage property includes Sanssouci Park, the Lindenallee Avenue west of the New Palace, the Former Gardener’s Training School, former Railway Station of the Emperor and its environs, Lindstedt Palace and its low-lying surroundings, the Seekoppel paddock, the Avenue to Sanssouci, the Voltaireweg Avenue as a connection between Sanssouci Park and the New Garden, the New Garden, the so-called Mirbach Wäldchen Grove and the link between Pfingstberg Hill and the New Garden, the Villa Henkel with Garden, Pfingstberg Hill, the garden at the Villa Alexander, Babelsberg Park, the approaches to Babelsberg Park, the Babelsberg Observatory, Sacrow Park, the Royal Forest around the village of Sacrow, and the Russian colony Alexandrowka with the Kapellenberg, the artificial Italian village of Bornstedt and the artificial Swiss village in Klein-Glienicke. In Berlin, it includes Glienicke Park, Böttcherberg Hill with the Loggia Alexandra, the Glienicke Hunting Lodge, and the Peacock Island (including all buildings).

Criterion (i): The ensemble of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam is an exceptional artistic achievement whose eclectic and evolutive features reinforce its uniqueness: from Knobelsdorff to Schinkel and from Eyserbeck to Lenné, a series of architectural and landscaping masterpieces have been built within a single space, illustrating opposing and reputedly irreconcilable styles without detracting from the harmony of a general composition that has been designed progressively over time. The beginning of the construction of Friedenskirche in 1845 is a symbol of deliberate historicism: this "Nazarene" pastiche of San Clemente Basilica in Rome commemorates the laying, on 14 April 1745, of the first stone for Sanssouci, the Rococo palace par excellence.

Criterion (ii): Potsdam-Sanssouci - frequently called the "Prussian Versailles" - is the crystallization of a great number of influences from Italy, England, Flanders, Paris, and Dresden. A synthesis of art trends in European cities and courts in the 18th century, the castle and the park offer new models that have greatly influenced the development of the monumental arts and the organization of space east of the Oder.

Criterion (iv): Potsdam-Sanssouci is an outstanding example of architectural creations and Landscaping development associated with the monarchic concept of power within Europe. By the vastness of the program, these royal ensembles belong to the very distinct category of princely residences, such as Würzburg and Blenheim (included on the World Heritage List in 1981 and 1987 respectively). The bombing of 14 April 1945 has made it impossible to nominate to the World Heritage List the urban ensemble developed by Frederick William I in two stages: the "first new town", from 1721 to 1725, and the "second new town", beginning in 1733.

Source: unesco.org