Russian Colony Alexandrowka

Text courtesy of "TMB"

A gift to the czar

Frederick William III and the Russian Czar Alexander were close friends. To give expression to this friendship, Frederick had the Russian colony Alexandrowka built. The green spaces were designed by Peter Joseph Lenné and were meant to offer Russian singers a special atmosphere for music and leisure. Today, the entire area is part of  the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. If you go strolling from here, you will reach Kapellenberg (chapel hill) with its small Russian orthodox church dating back to the 19th century. And it is not far either to Potsdam’s highest natural elevation: behind the Jewish cemetery you can reach Pfingstberg (Whitsuntide hill). Here, you can admire the temple of Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees and Schinkel’s first building, and also Belvedere castle with its twin tower structure, which Frederick IV had built in the middle of the 19th century according to the model of the Roman villa Medici.