Peter Jacobs
Potsdamer Schlössernacht (Potsdam’s Palaces by Night)
Walk around like Prussia’s kings
Nowhere else is Prussia’s Baroque period shown to be more splendid, luxurious and romantic than in the Sanssouci Park. The gardens and palaces are presented in a landscape of incomparable harmony. The former summer paradise of the Prussian kings, close to the capital city Berlin, is part of the World Heritage Centre.
Once a year, you can experience the brilliantly illuminated park in a romantic night mood. On the 21th August 2010, the XII Potsdam’s Palaces by Night will take place. With concerts and dancing displays, and with theatrics and lectures on literature. It is an exhilarating, completely unique Baroque experience. In the evening there is, as always, a prelude concert in front of the New Palace, but on this occasion it will be performed by the Tschaikowsky Symphonie Orchestra from Moscow.
Hundreds of actors form the nocturnal programme of the Potsdam’s Palaces by Night. Visitors are met with masks and costumes of past eras – from the orangery to the New Palace, from the Chinese House to the Roman baths, from the picture gallery to the Church of Peace (German: Friedenskirche). The trees are even starting to speak. They tell how they arrived at this place, into this unique park landscape, devised by the great landscape designer Peter Lenné. This landscape combines English park architecture with a mix of old-oriental and Roman-Latin influences.
An opportunity for visitors to go walking about like Prussian King Frederick the Great.
The programme of the Potsdam’s Palaces by Night promises a magnificent celebration. The media interest reaches far beyond the German borders. In order to preserve the park, which would normally be closed at night, the number of entrance tickets is restricted to 33.000. Some of the proceeds will go towards the further reconstruction of the Prussian palaces and gardens.
This much is certain: Those who visit Sanssouci by night, will return home with unforgettable memories. A wide range of culinary refreshments will be provided. After midnight fireworks will be set off in front of the New Palace, its Baroque magic already enticing guests to come back to the Potsdam’s Palaces by Night in 2011.
(Stand vom 12.11.2009)