Orangery

Historic monuments and sites

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There was an Orangery in Electress Louise Henriette’s original pleasure garden. A second one was created in 1699/1701 under Elector Frederick III /King Frederick I of Prussia. After the latter’s death, the pleasure garden and its buildings fell into decay. Prince Augustus William, who received the palace and gardens as a gift from his brother King Frederick II at Christmas 1742, stopped the decline of his grandfather’s legacy. The palace was turned into a residence for him and his wife Louise Amalie and was modernised with great zeal by the Prince. He devoted himself with equal vigour to the pleasure garden, which he had extended to the north and whose beauty exceeded that of Sanssouci Park as early as 1746 – as Augustus William’s brother the King himself judged in a letter.

The construction of the Orangery in the pleasure garden was one of the improvements introduced by Augustus William. The Prince paid particular attention to its design, rejecting several excessively ornamental drafts by architect Georg Christoph Berger. A simple Classicistic design dating from 1755 was the only one to receive his approval. The new Orangery was constructed as a long, single-storey plaster structure with nine axes in an ionic pilaster structure at the fronts and round arch openings as well as a plaster quadrangle on the park side.

Due to the start of the Seven Years’ War (1756) and the early death of the Prince (1758), however, construction work was not completed. From then on the shell of the building served as a powder magazine for the military stationed nearby. King Frederick II finally had the Orangery completed in 1792.

After being restored in accordance with the regulations for listed buildings, it was reopened as a cultural centre in 2003 and now attracts thousands of visitors every year to top-class events such as concerts, readings and cabaret. The Orangery in the palace park is also a popular venue for private parties.