Belvedere on the Pfingstberg: A Prussian Viewing Palace in Potsdam
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Prussia
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page14 sections
History
The Belvedere on the Pfingstberg is a nineteenth-century viewing palace in Potsdam, Germany, built under King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in an eclectic style based chiefly on Italian Renaissance architecture. Its position on Pfingstberg, the highest elevation of Potsdam west of the Havel at 76 metres, was chosen for its broad prospects. The completed building formed only one part of a much larger royal development planned for the summit.
Early proposals and the royal project
The idea of placing a belvedere, a structure designed primarily to provide a broad view, on the hill first arose in 1793 under Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia from 1786 to 1797. The hill was then called Judenberg, or “Jewish Mountain,” a name associated with the Jewish cemetery on its western slope. Architect Michael Philipp Daniel Boumann prepared designs for Gothic towers and a hall, but the project was abandoned after royal building plans caused land prices to rise sharply.
The royal house acquired the area in 1817, after which the hill was renamed Pfingstberg, or “Pentecost Mountain.” Friedrich Wilhelm IV revived the plan for a viewing building and repeatedly produced sketches of his own. His principal model was the casino of the Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola, north of Rome, which he had visited during his first journey to Italy at the age of 33. The king reproduced much of that complex in his conception and added a large pair of towers.
Ludwig Persius developed drawings from the king’s sketches. Friedrich August Stüler and Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse then prepared the detailed plans and directed the construction, while the landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné designed the grounds. The planned complex was considerably more extensive than the building that ultimately survives.
Construction and curtailment
Construction proceeded in two phases. The first lasted from 1847 to 1852, but further work was halted for financial reasons as attention and resources turned to the Orangery Palace, begun in 1851. Building resumed after a lengthy interruption from 1860 to 1863.
The interruption became effectively permanent after Friedrich Wilhelm IV suffered several strokes. He transferred the regency to his brother Wilhelm I in 1858 and died in 1861. Wilhelm I commissioned Stüler to finish the existing structure with an entrance hall and two wing walls. That work ended in 1863, leaving major parts of the original design unrealized. The proposed two-storey casino beside the entrance, its horseshoe-shaped double staircase and fountain, the descending path with a water staircase, and two flanking pavilions were never constructed. A watercolor made by architect Ferdinand von Arnim in 1856 preserves the intended arrangement.
The full project would also have required the demolition of the Pomona Temple below the Belvedere. Built in 1800, the temple was Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s first building. Its continued presence helped screen unfinished parts of Lenné’s garden composition. Lenné adapted the grounds to the smaller palace and the retained temple, linking the two within the garden design without intending them to form a single visual composition. A semicircular arcade completed the surrounding landscape.
Decline, closure, and restoration
Moisture damage appeared soon after the Belvedere was completed and required continuing structural maintenance. That maintenance ceased during the Second World War, and the building subsequently fell into disrepair. Its deterioration accelerated in the 1950s, when Soviet military personnel moved into the villa district between Pfingstberg and the New Garden.
The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 ended the Belvedere’s use as a viewing site. Border installations and West Berlin could be seen from the building, making its position politically sensitive. In 1987, young Potsdam residents began campaigning to save the ruined, overgrown palace and restore the surrounding landscape. Under the East German Kulturbund, they established the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Pfingstberg in 1988. A festival held at the Belvedere on 10 June 1989 brought artists and thousands of Potsdam residents to the building as part of the restoration initiative. In 1990, the organization became the Förderverein Pfingstberg e.V., which continues to operate the monument.
Restoration took place between 1988 and 2005, supported by public funding and major private donations, especially from the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung and Werner Otto. The Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg administers the Belvedere, while the private association operates it. The building forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin. The ensemble was inscribed in 1990 and extended in 1992 and 1999; the Pfingstberg complex entered the ensemble through the 1999 extension under cultural criteria (i), (ii), and (iv).
Remains
The Belvedere occupies the summit of Pfingstberg as a nearly square complex on a high podium. Its 25-metre-high twin prospect towers dominate the building, while a tower front, an opposing open staircase, and lateral galleries surround a large inner courtyard. The architecture combines Italian Renaissance Revival forms with Romanizing wings and selected Greek-inspired details. Lenné’s grounds follow the manner of an English landscape garden, using serpentine paths and dense stands of hardwood trees. Planting that formed part of the design restricts views of the building from the park and from most other parts of Potsdam.
Courtyard and circulation
Inner courtyard and colonnades
The inner courtyard contains a central reflecting pool and is enclosed by two Corinthian colonnades, passages defined by rows of columns, together with another gallery formed by round arches without columns. Double-flight open staircases lead from the courtyard to the roof terrace above the gate building and continue toward the eastern and western colonnades. These galleries provide access to the two towers and organize movement around the courtyard.
Water system
The courtyard reservoir is supplied by the pump house of the dairy in the New Garden. It functions as an elevated tank for water features in the lower-lying New Garden, giving the courtyard pool a role within the wider hydraulic system of the royal grounds.
Twin towers and interiors
Moorish Cabinet
The east tower contains the Moorish Cabinet, designed by Carl von Diebitsch. Its interior uses colorful glazed wall tiles, some of them partly gilded, to create a historicizing Moorish decorative scheme. A cast-iron spiral staircase rises from the level above the cabinet toward the viewing platform, reached across the walkable roof of the connecting arcade.
Roman Cabinet
The west tower contains the Roman Cabinet, whose decoration includes genii, swans, winged lions, porticoes, and figures set against a red background. A cast-iron spiral staircase leads from this room to the level above the arcade and then to the roof viewing platform. The two upper tower rooms were intended as modest entertainment spaces within a building whose primary purpose was to provide elevated views. Their decoration drew on Roman-Etruscan and Moorish historicizing styles, while the upper mural schemes have undergone substantial loss.
Garden structures
Semicircular arcade
A semicircular arcade forms part of the exterior grounds. Beyond it, the landscape around the Pomona Temple descends toward the valley. At its centre is a large circular lawn that was formerly planted with elaborate flower displays.
Pomona Temple
The Pomona Temple stands below the Belvedere as an associated garden building from 1800. It was the first building designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and remained part of the adapted garden composition after the larger Pfingstberg project was curtailed.
A permanent exhibition on the history of the Belvedere is installed in the ground floor beneath the northern arcade, adding an interpretive use to the surviving structure.
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