Marble Palace (Marmorpalais)

Red brick walls, bands of grey and white marble, a small round temple with a gilded fruit basket on the roof and the waters of the Heiliger See in front: the Marmorpalais in the New Garden may be Potsdam's most romantic palace. King Frederick William II built it from 1787 as a private summer residence, deliberately unlike the Rococo of his uncle Frederick the Great. It became the first and only Prussian royal palace in the early neoclassical style.

History: a king going his own way

Frederick William II, nephew and successor of Frederick the Great, was musical and close to Rosicrucian ideas. Architects Carl von Gontard and Carl Gotthard Langhans built the palace between 1787 and 1793, and the Silesian marble on its façade gave it its name. The interiors were shaped by the king's confidante, Countess Wilhelmine von Lichtenau, inspired by her trip to Italy.

Because the king found stairs difficult, two single-storey wings were begun in 1797, reusing columns from a crumbling marble colonnade in Sanssouci Park. He died here in November 1797, and the wings were only fitted out in 1843–1848. Later residents included the young Wilhelm II and, from 1905, the crown prince and princess before they moved to nearby Cecilienhof in 1917. In East German times the palace housed the army museum, with tanks and a MiG in the garden. All 40 rooms have been open again since 2006.

What to see

• Vestibule made entirely of multicoloured marble.
• Grotto Hall right by the water, once the summer dining room, linked by a tunnel to the kitchen.
• Concert Hall, one of the highlights, fitting for a music-loving king.
• Furnishings: Marquetry furniture, silk wall hangings, two clocks from Madame de Pompadour's estate and Wedgwood vases.
• Palace kitchen disguised as a half-sunken temple ruin on the shore.
• South wing: A new exhibition since 2025 on the era of Frederick William II.

Opening hours and tickets (as of October 2026)

May to October Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–17:30; November to March weekends only 10:00–16:00. Visits are by guided tour in German, with a free multilingual tour in the "SANSSOUCI" app. Admission €8, reduced €6; the sanssouci+ day ticket costs €22. Only the ground floor is wheelchair accessible.

Getting there

Im Neuen Garten 10, 14469 Potsdam. Take the bus or tram to "Birkenstraße/Alleestraße" and walk about 700 metres; paid parking is near Cecilienhof.

Tripto tip

Allow about an hour and a half. The classic photo is from the opposite shore of the Heiliger See, with the palace reflected in the water.