Sanssouci Potsdam

German title: Sanssouci Potsdam
Scale: 1:300
Length: 51 cm
Width: 21 cm
Height: 5 cm
Degree of difficulty: 2 (moderately difficult)
Number of sheets: 4.5

Sanssouci Palace Potsdam (Germany)
Castle and park Sanssouci are part of the Unesco world cultural heritage and are regarded as pearl of the North German Rococo period. Within the years 1745 to 1748 the castle was built near the city of Potsdam as a summer residence Friedrichs II. The 18th century was the great century of the residences. With a splendid living castle the builder did only not set up a monument to himself but could perform official duties with that and keep Hof generously. Sanssouci, however, is no more royal castle in this conventional meaning. On the other hand, if the representative aspect still emerges considerably in Versailles, the intimate and individual design stands out in Sanssouci. The castle is with pleasure located on a hill, the so-called "desert mountain".
The single-storey, approx. 152 m long plant does not stand on a base, therefore is not built with a cellar and works very flatly and with the garden area narrowly in conjunction. The client king Friedrich II. had exactly imagined his place of residence so. The story of Sanssouci starts with a vineyard which the king laid out exactly in this place had. 1744 were subdivided into six turned terraces which was held by tapered retaining walls the south-facing slope of the mountain. On the terraces let Friedrich grow noble types of vine and intensify the sun warmth with the help of glass windows. Stone open stairs lead in the middle of the terraces up to a plateau which released a marvellous vision.
At the beginning, so the vineyard of the king stood. He has the construction of a desire house above the vineyard in Potsdam a year later. The construction work starts with Georg Wenzeslaus of Knobelsdorff under the building site supervision of the baron on April 3rd, 1745. The marble hall on the garden side is resplendent the two words "Sans souci" without worry around at this already in December 1746.
The king spent the time of April in his favourite castle here until October. He had this //Potsdam er// simultaneous town closed has improved and used this as a winter residence. The making of Sanssouci declines extensively to the own plans of Friedrich of the great. He was looking for a refuge in which he could devote himself to the arts and the philosophy. Friedrich had remembered also to his last resting-place. He had a tomb opposite the window of his studying room built for herself. He shall have had the memorable words there: "Quand per serais l per serais sans souci." Therefore the name so.
Sanssouci did not only consist of the two-winged main making with the dome light in the middle section. Friedrich had immediately had a colonnade of 48 pairs of coupled Corinthian columns who were in two rows around a big semicircle built behind this.
The sculptures also have to be stressed on the garden side. 36 figures carry the ledge of the castle into over-lifesize between the windows per two. The façade design of Sanssouci reflects the transition of the baroque considerably to the classicism. While the frontage is completely stuck by the garden in playful Rococo period forms to, the back appears with her colonnades in austere, classical form.
King Friedrich II. assembled tall European spirits around his table, among this Goethe, Voltaire, and brook. He cultivated the music just like high-carat conversations.
It is said he would have sent invitation following Voltaire once: Venez sous P
(Who has French knowledge perhaps can decode her. Solution below: )
Voltaire shall have responded to this (of course also French) laconically:
J a
The king avoided the society of women. His own wife only seldom lived far away and saw her spouse. Despite long-standing friendships the king became a lonely man in old age. Many of his narrowest intimate friends disappointed him in the end so that he got bitterer and bitterer. He died childlessly in the year 1786 and Friedrich Wilhelm II. left the throne and his Sanssouci to his nephew, this one like his successors made Sanssouci one of his places of residence. The desire of Friedrich of the great to be buried next to his dogs in the tomb on Sanssouci was fulfilled only 205 years after his death. On August 17th, 1991 one convicted his mortal remains of the Hohenzollern of the ancestral castle at Hechingen to Sanssouci and she buried there.
The invitation has to be read as follows:
Venez sous P...of cent sous six or Venez dinner ... Sanssouci. (Come to Sanssouci to dinner. )
On this the answer: J grand a brevier or J'Ai grand appetite. (I have great appetite.)