Sanssouci, The Palace Without Cares

A couple of weeks ago we headed to Potsdam to see the royal palace of Sanssouci. The palace was built by Fredrick the Great around 1747 as a country escape from his palace in Berlin. It sits atop a terraced hill and stretches out in essentially a single story like a ranch on steroids. The size of the structure is not what impresses you; rather it is the ornate playfulness of the place.

The entrance from the road in disarming. It’s almost as though you are entering through the back door of some stucco McMansion outside of Houston*. But as soon as you enter, the Rococo detail and romanticized art whisks you into another state of mind completely. The trim is all in Italian marble, and every surface you see either displays a piece of art or is a piece of art. The palace (and the 700 acre park it sits on) were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. The entrance fee includes a wonderful audio guide book and, thanks to that, we learned all about the Rococo period. Rococo was a design style based on the recurring motif of a curved shell. Initially it is hard to identify the shell (“I don’t see a shell Dad, just squiggly lines” **) but once you know what to look for, it is easy to see. The curving shell interlaces the images together with lines formed from other natural forms and shapes like leaves, vines and fruit. Through out this interlaced and ultimately intricate scroll there are recurring images from Greek and Roman mythology. It was magnificent. I know these tours are a success when I ask the kids if they are enjoying it and, rather than the glazed look of IKEA shoppers, I receive a resounding “Oh yeah, this is cool!”

After leaving the main palace rooms we proceeded to the next most important section of the palace, the coffee storage and the wine cellar. Of the two, I think the coffee dude had the best deal. His office window looked out over the front grounds (no pun intended). The wine dude had a less spectacular office in, of course, the cellar. But, all things being equal, he had better leftovers to enjoy.

As you circle the palace, wonderful views open up. Friedrich terraced the hill leading up to the palace so he could grow grapes. The terraces cascade down to beautiful gardens at the base complete with fountains and a huge circular pool. This is the entry into the magnificent grounds around which Friedrich and his progeny built several more palaces. We strolled to the far end of the 700-acre park to the Neues Palais (new palace). It was built as a gigantic guesthouse. It is large, regal and imposing, with sculptures trending more toward war than fairies and fruit like Sanssouci. I suppose the emperors were sending a subtle message to their guests. “Don’t mess”. Too bad Napoleon didn’t pay attention.


* I have never been to Houston, nor do I ever want to go, but I have plenty of negative stereotypes to draw on never the less.
** Cameron King in a state of Rococo confusion.