Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Charlottenhof, Potsdam-Sanssouci

The palace, set on a severe garden axis, was built from 1826 to 1829. It was followed from 1829 to 1840 by the freely developing area of the Hofgärtnerhaus and its adjacent facilities, all of which has become known as the »Roman Baths«. The Crown Prince involved himself in the planning process, contributing over 100 sketches. He called Charlottenhof »my Siam«, understood as a synonym for a better world, and he was pursuing with it his intention of presenting his own future style of government, based on romantic theories of the state and striving for a harmonious balance of all classes and interests. Charlottenhof is Schinkel’s only work to have survived complete inside and outside, surrounded by Lenné’s landscape garden, which has also been carefully looked after and preserved.