The city of Potsdam was founded in the 7th century as a Slavic town called Poztupimi and was only chosen as a hunting residence in 1660 by Frederick William I.
Later, this is why so many palaces were the residence of the Prussian royal family, built mainly during the reign of Frederick the Great.
Another important milestone that marked this city was the celebration of the Potsdam conference where those who had been victorious in the Second World War met to divide Germany and among them Berlin into four sectors, giving rise to the Potsdam Agreement and Declaration.
From Berlin to Potsdam
Potsdam was located just outside West Berlin after the construction of the Berlin Wall, thus almost completely isolating the city from West Berlin. The Glienicke Bridge over the Havel River connected the city with West Berlin and was the scene of some famous spy exchanges during the Cold War.
Potsdam is a small city located just 20 km from Berlin. Because of this, many come there on a day trip from the German capital. In our case, since we were driving by car, we had both passing by going from Frankfurt and also traveling to Dresden. We decided to use the last option since from Frankfurt to Berlin were more than 500 km and we preferred to rest a little. Before heading to Potsdam we left very early to the Charlottenburg Palace, which we have already talked about in this post What to visit in Berlin in addition to its main points
As I said before, it is a small city that does not require much time to get to know it, but the palace area is GIANT!! And that will depend on you, how much time you want to allocate to it. In our case we arrived at noon and stayed until 7 in the afternoon and the truth is we would have liked to have a few more hours to walk around the city, because the palaces took us a long time.
Potsdam Palace: Which ones to visit
To visit the palaces, the first thing you must do is go to get the ticket at the main office, because I say this, because to visit the Sanssouci Palace there are fixed times and you must sign up for one where there is space and with that time you will access. It’s not because it’s guided or anything, just because that way they limit the amount of people that can pass through. So don’t worry that all the tickets will run out and you won’t be able to visit it.
Visiting the Sanssouci Palace
They consider it the Versailles of Germany, but in my opinion Versailles is not surpassed by anything, at least from what I knew. The palace is beautiful and also its different and special architecture, accustomed to what one usually understands as a palace, invites you to visit it in a mandatory way.
It is worth noting that to access the gardens or visit any palace from the outside you do not have to pay any entrance fee. You only pay to visit the interior. With the ticket that costs 19 euros you will be able to access all the palaces of Potsdam
You can visit the Sanssouci with an audio guide included in the price, which helps a lot, as always, to understand the history even more. The visit takes a long time, even more so if you stop to listen to every point of the palace. If you don’t have much time, I recommend just seeing it from the outside and walking a little through its gardens, which in itself will take a couple of hours since between the Sanssouci palace and the new palace there is about 20 minutes walking, that doesn’t count visiting. the other palaces.
Other palaces to visit
Due to a matter of time, we only saw the Sanssouci from the inside but we approached the others to see them from the outside. He New Palace, In my opinion less striking than the Sanssouci but it is much more enormous and its dome is very beautiful. What is worth it is the path through the gardens from the Sanssouci to this palace. He Cecilienhof Palace, Although today it is a hotel as well as a museum, it has an important history, since it was the place where the Potsdam Conference was drawn up. The only bad thing is that it is located in the new garden, far from the gardens. of the Sanssouci. He Orangery Palace, Very striking for its architecture, it has copies of works by Raphael inside.
What to see in Potsdam and its city
We have not found highlights to see in the city, but the nice thing is to walk through it and discover beautiful little streets, even more so if you reach the Dutch Quarter or Little Amsterdam since all its buildings are made of reddish brick on small cobblestone streets. You can also find several cafes, businesses that make you want to spend hours getting to know everything. In the historic center more precisely in Luisenplatz you will also find the Brandenburg Gate which was built before the famous one in Berlin.