Alexandrowka Russian Colony

A few minutes north of Potsdam's centre you suddenly come across dark timber houses with carved gables, balconies and gardens, as if a Russian village had been moved here. Alexandrowka is a Russian colony that King Frederick William III of Prussia created in 1826 for the last twelve singers of a Russian soldiers' choir. It is named after the recently deceased Tsar Alexander I and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.

History: a choir of prisoners of war

The story begins with Napoleon. In 1812 Prussia was forced to march with France against Russia, and 62 captured Russian soldiers stayed in Potsdam. They were formed into a choir attached to the 1st Guards Regiment. When Prussia and Russia joined forces against Napoleon in 1813, the choir kept singing for the king, with Tsar Alexander I's blessing.

By the tsar's death in 1825 only twelve singers were still alive. The king built them their own colony as a monument to the friendship between the Hohenzollern and Romanov dynasties. In 1827/28 the families moved into fully furnished houses with gardens already laid out, and each household was given a cow. They could not sell or lease anything, and property passed only to male heirs. The last singer died in 1861; the last direct descendant of a singer's family lived here until 2008.

What to see

• The houses: Twelve farmsteads with gabled houses, balconies, loggias and small stables. They look like log cabins but are timber-framed buildings faced with half-logs, a cost-saving idea of the Prussian Guards engineers.
• The layout: Garden director Peter Joseph Lenné laid out the colony as a hippodrome with a St Andrew's cross; the houses follow a design by Carlo Rossi for a "Russian village" at Pavlovsk.
• Alexandrowka Museum: In House No. 2, six rooms with panels, exhibits and two films, plus a garden café and shop.
• Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church: The Russian Orthodox church on the Kapellenberg, consecrated in September 1829.

Opening hours and tickets (as of October 2026)

You can walk through the colony at any time, but most houses are private homes, so please stay on the paths. The museum and garden café are open 1 April to 31 October 2026, daily except Wednesday, 10:00–18:00; winter hours vary. Admission €3.50, reduced €3, children under 14 with parents free, and free on your birthday. Garden, café and exhibition rooms are wheelchair accessible.

Getting there

The colony lies in the Nauener Vorstadt north of the centre, about a quarter of an hour on foot from the Dutch Quarter. The museum address is Alexandrowka 2, 14469 Potsdam, and parking is possible in front of it.

Tripto tip

Allow about an hour for a stroll and the museum, then climb the Kapellenberg to the church and continue to the Pfingstberg and its Belvedere just to the north.