I wrote a long comment and just as I was finishing it, DW ate it! Curses.
Knocked out from memory:
Sanssouci is still the historical site I'm most glad I've visited. But I didn't know a fraction of what I now know, and I need to go back! But in lieu of that, your pictures and commentary are lovely and have made my whole week.
In order to go inside, you have to book a ticket well in advance, especially in Corona times.
When I was there, in 2012, I only had to wait an hour, and I spent that hour wandering around the grounds (and having no idea about most of what I was looking at), but there was definitely no social distancing. We were crammed into the palace like sardines.
Lol at the heart-shaped potato. I think it's cool that the tributes on Fritz's grave are slightly different each time.
And yay legible dog gravestones! <3 This dog-lover approves.
Man, the trellis around the Katte, I mean Antinous, statue is really superbly photogenic on a sunny day. The first such picture I found of that angle is currently the wallpaper on my computer. I'm glad you were able to see it in a similarly gorgeous state.
Like cahn, I am amused at you making sure to capture that direct line of sight to the library.
Frederick's study and bedroom. It got refurbished after his death in the Neo classic style he loathed, though it's now partially restored to Rococo. Now, some biographers have seen the refurbishing as an attack by nephew FW2, but regardless of FW2's less than warm feelings for Uncle Fritz, it was actually Fritz fan FW3 who did the refurbishing because he wanted to live there for some months a year
Oooh, I had only heard the FW2 story. (Or if they told me it was FW3 when I was there, I'd since forgotten.)
and the room was so run down and dirty it had to be refurbished. (This I actually believe, given Frederick's hygienic habits in his old age.
Old age, middle age, and youth. :P
I've also read that Fritz was so wedded to Sanssouci as his personal residence that he didn't *want* anyone living in it after his death, and therefore refused to do more than basic maintenance to keep it livable for him in the last decade of his life, so it was deteriorating even then.
I take it they didn't let you see Fredersdorf's room or even tell you where it was? Neither iberiandoctor nor I had any memory of it. Do you know if any of those doors in Fritz's bedchamber-cum-study lead to Fredersdorf's adjoining room? Sanssouci castellans, don't you know Fredersdorf has fans?!
the famous concert room, where Menzel's painting "Flute Concert at Sanssouci" is set.
cahn, notice the flute in the glass case! Though I didn't pay the extra fee to take photos inside the palace (and regretted it as soon as I saw they had the original chair he died in), I still have a clear mental visual of that flute from eight years ago. <3
Thank you for reminding me the marble is Silesian. Problematic fave <3 forever.
The famous historic mill. Which, btw, still produces bread you can buy:
Did not know that! Though it's worth pointing out the mill has been rebuilt several times since the original one of Fritz's day.
This is not the only painting by a female (!) painter in the Neue Kammern, Anna Therbusch. (Catherine later pinched her.)
Therbusch was official portrait painter to Fritz in his later years! Though Wikipedia tells me Catherine commissioned works from her (inc. portraits of the entire Prussian royal family, which are still in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg), Therbusch never actually went to Russia.
I've always thought the Chinese Tea House was lovely. Your pictures wonderfully capture its opulent elegance.
These pictures, in all four picspams, have made me so happy my face hurts from all the smiling. :D <33
no subject
Knocked out from memory:
Sanssouci is still the historical site I'm most glad I've visited. But I didn't know a fraction of what I now know, and I need to go back! But in lieu of that, your pictures and commentary are lovely and have made my whole week.
In order to go inside, you have to book a ticket well in advance, especially in Corona times.
When I was there, in 2012, I only had to wait an hour, and I spent that hour wandering around the grounds (and having no idea about most of what I was looking at), but there was definitely no social distancing. We were crammed into the palace like sardines.
Lol at the heart-shaped potato. I think it's cool that the tributes on Fritz's grave are slightly different each time.
And yay legible dog gravestones! <3 This dog-lover approves.
Man, the trellis around the Katte, I mean Antinous, statue is really superbly photogenic on a sunny day. The first such picture I found of that angle is currently the wallpaper on my computer. I'm glad you were able to see it in a similarly gorgeous state.
Like
Frederick's study and bedroom. It got refurbished after his death in the Neo classic style he loathed, though it's now partially restored to Rococo. Now, some biographers have seen the refurbishing as an attack by nephew FW2, but regardless of FW2's less than warm feelings for Uncle Fritz, it was actually Fritz fan FW3 who did the refurbishing because he wanted to live there for some months a year
Oooh, I had only heard the FW2 story. (Or if they told me it was FW3 when I was there, I'd since forgotten.)
and the room was so run down and dirty it had to be refurbished. (This I actually believe, given Frederick's hygienic habits in his old age.
Old age, middle age, and youth. :P
I've also read that Fritz was so wedded to Sanssouci as his personal residence that he didn't *want* anyone living in it after his death, and therefore refused to do more than basic maintenance to keep it livable for him in the last decade of his life, so it was deteriorating even then.
I take it they didn't let you see Fredersdorf's room or even tell you where it was? Neither
Sanssouci castellans, don't you know Fredersdorf has fans?!
the famous concert room, where Menzel's painting "Flute Concert at Sanssouci" is set.
Thank you for reminding me the marble is Silesian. Problematic fave <3 forever.
The famous historic mill. Which, btw, still produces bread you can buy:
Did not know that! Though it's worth pointing out the mill has been rebuilt several times since the original one of Fritz's day.
This is not the only painting by a female (!) painter in the Neue Kammern, Anna Therbusch. (Catherine later pinched her.)
Therbusch was official portrait painter to Fritz in his later years! Though Wikipedia tells me Catherine commissioned works from her (inc. portraits of the entire Prussian royal family, which are still in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg), Therbusch never actually went to Russia.
I've always thought the Chinese Tea House was lovely. Your pictures wonderfully capture its opulent elegance.
These pictures, in all four picspams, have made me so happy my face hurts from all the smiling. :D <33
Thank you so much.