Pfaueninsel

Friedrich Wilhelm II had a summer house built on this Havel island in the 1790s in the form of a ruined medieval castle, constructed in painted timber to look like weathered stone, with the two towers linked by a bridge; it was designed to be seen from the mainland shore. His successors added a dairy also built as a ruin, a menagerie whose animals later founded the Berlin Zoo, and a landscape park by Peter Joseph Lenné. Peacocks introduced then still run free and give the island its name. Rules are strict: no cars, bicycles, dogs, smoking or swimming, and the island closes at dusk. UNESCO listed it in 1990.

History

In the late 17th century the island was called Kaninchenwerder, Rabbit Island, after a rabbit-breeding station of Elector Frederick William, who from 1685 funded a glass works here for the chemist Johann Kunckel, where he found a way to make ruby glass; a fire, possibly arson, wrecked the works in 1689, and Kunckel left for Sweden. In 1793 King Frederick William II acquired the island and had the little palace built in 1794-1797 for himself and his mistress Wilhelmine Enke, visible from his Marble Palace in Potsdam, with an English garden and a dairy shaped like a Gothic church. Frederick William III made it a model farm, had Lenné and Schinkel redesign the park in 1821-1834 and kept a menagerie of more than 900 animals, which Frederick William IV transferred in 1842 to the new Berlin Zoo, opened in 1844 (Wikipedia, Pfaueninsel).

What you'll find

• The false ruin - a summer palace built as a fake castle in painted timber.
• The free peacocks - descendants of the birds that named the island.
• The Lenné park - a landscape garden with meadows and old oaks.
• The strict rules - no bicycles, dogs, smoking or swimming.

When to go

April to October; the ferry runs to a timetable and the island closes at dusk. The palace interior is shown on guided tours in season only.

Things to know

Access is only by a small ferry with limited capacity and queues on fine weekends. Bicycles and dogs are banned. The palace opens seasonally.

Nearby

Wannsee lies east; Potsdam is southwest.

Key facts