Obelisk Gate, Potsdam, Germany
N 52° 24.148 E 013° 02.718
33U E 367022 N 5807600
Replica of an Egyptian Obelisk in Sanssouci World Heritage Park
Waymark Code: WM2D2A
Location: Brandenburg, Germany
Date Posted: 10/14/2007
Views: 75
King Frederick the Great, the founder of the park and castle of
Sanssouci was a cosmopolitan monarch. So it is not surprising that his park contains pieces of
Chinese,
Japanese,
French and
Italian Architecture. On his visits in Italy, the King's architect,
Georg von Knobelsdorff noticed Obelisks that the Romans had brought from Egypt and decided to add this feature to the cosmopolitan design of the Potsdam Parks.
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This one is located at one of the entrances to Sanssouci Park, the gate is actually called the Obelisk Gate. While it certainly looks Egyptian, looks are really all it has in common with an original Egyptian obelisk. Egyptians used monoliths, this one is made of bricks. And Egyptian hieroglyphs had a meaning while the pictograms on this one are merely decorative - Hieroglyphs were not deciphered until 1823, while this obelisk was erected in 1747.
although it is only faked Egyptian, it nicely adds to Potsdam's international flair, a trend that started with Frederick the Great, continued later with the addition of Russian and Arabic architecture and just got a new addition: a theater modeled after the Sydney Opera.
A second obelisk is located at Old Market Square at the site of the former City Castle.
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