Babelsberg Park

Park Babelsberg is a 124-hectare landscape garden on the Havel waterfront in southeastern Potsdam, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site "Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin". Prince William, the future Emperor Wilhelm I, and his wife Augusta commissioned Schloss Babelsberg as their summer residence from 1833 onwards, first hiring landscape gardener Peter Joseph Lenne and later Prince Hermann von Pueckler-Muskau to design the park. Pueckler used the rolling topography brilliantly, opening view axes toward the Glienicke Bridge, Pfaueninsel and the Sacrow Heilandskirche, and laying out paths that produce surprise reveals at every turn. Set pieces such as the medieval Gerichtslaube (transplanted from Berlin), the Flatowturm and the steam engine pavilion punctuate the landscape. Today Potsdamers jog the paths, the brave swim in the brook below the palace in summer, and the view from the promenade across the Glienicke Bridge toward Berlin is one of the most moving in the city.