Charlottenburg Palace

Sophie Charlotte, wife of the first king in Prussia, began the palace in 1695 as a summer house, and it was extended repeatedly through the eighteenth century into the largest palace in Berlin. The Porcelain Cabinet is lined floor to ceiling with over two thousand pieces of Chinese and Japanese porcelain arranged on brackets and mirrors, a form of display fashionable in the period and rarely surviving. The New Wing holds rococo state rooms by Knobelsdorff and paintings by Watteau. Bombing in 1943 gutted much of the building; reconstruction ran for decades and the Porcelain Cabinet was rebuilt from surviving pieces and records.

Background

The palace was inaugurated on 11 July 1699, the 42nd birthday of Frederick, Sophie Charlotte's husband. At first it had a single wing with a central cupola and two oval halls at the back, a ceremonial hall above and a room below opening onto the gardens. From 1702 the royal architect Johann Friedrich von Eosander, who had studied buildings in Italy and France, Versailles among them, added two side wings around a large courtyard. After Sophie Charlotte died in 1705, Frederick named the palace and estate Charlottenburg in her memory. Coxie painted frescos in the chapel, the Gobelin Gallery and the Porcelain Room between 1701 and 1713.

Source: Wikipedia, "Schloss Charlottenburg"

What to look for

• The Porcelain Cabinet - a room lined with over two thousand pieces.
• The New Wing - rococo state rooms and a Watteau collection.
• The baroque garden - a formal garden giving way to an English park.
• The mausoleum - a small temple in the park holding royal tombs.

When to go

April to October for the park; the palace closes Mondays. Different wings have separate tickets or a combined pass. Christmas markets fill the forecourt in December.

Good to know

Much is postwar reconstruction after 1943 bombing. Wings are separately ticketed. It closes Mondays and queues form on weekends.

Nearby

Central Berlin lies east; the Olympic stadium is west.

Key facts