Sanssouci Park

Park Sanssouci stretches over roughly 300 hectares and is the central component of the UNESCO World Heritage site "Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin". From 1744 Frederick the Great laid out a vineyard in six terraced steps from his own sketches and in 1747 capped it with Schloss Sanssouci, completed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff - a key work of Frederician Rococo. In following decades came the Picture Gallery, the New Chambers, the Chinese House and the colossal Neues Palais. From 1825 Peter Joseph Lenne transformed the formerly geometric royal grounds into a sweeping landscape park with sightlines, water features and statuary. Today visitors stroll beneath old lime trees from the Green Gate to the Neues Palais, the Historische Muehle restaurant turns its sails, and the vineyard terraces in front of Sanssouci remain one of the most photographed motifs in German garden art.