Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Brandenburg

In 1812 the Prussian army captured 1.000 Russian soldiers. King Friedrich Wilhelm III formed a choir from these men. Later - after a renewed friendship between Prussia and Russia - the choir remained in Potsdam. After the death of the Russian tsar Alexander, Friedrich Wilhelm paid tribute by building a village for the remaining members of the choir. The village of Alexandrowka with its thirteen houses was finished in 1827. Houses (PiP’s) were built in Russian style, fully furnished and came with a large garden and a cow. In honor of the inhabitant's religion, the king decided to add a Russian Orthodox Church to the settlement. It was named after tsar Alexander’s patron saint, Alexander Nevsky. The church was designed by a Russian architect. It is located on the Kapellenberg, north of Alexandrowka. The church has been in service continuously since its dedication in 1829 and is today the oldest existing Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe. The last original inhabitant of Alexandrowka died in 1861. Today the houses have new private owners and most of them have been beautifully restored. Since 1999 the settlement and church are a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Chinese House (Chinesisches Haus) is a garden pavilion in Sanssouci Park. King Friedrich II had it built between 1755 and 1764, southwest of his summer palace, to adorn his flower and vegetable garden. The pavilion was designed by Johann Gottfried Büring in the then-popular style of Chinoiserie, a mixture of ornamental rococo elements and parts of Chinese architecture. Friedrich der Große modeled the Chinese House on a trefoil-shaped garden pavilion in the palace grounds of Lunéville in France. The central building contains three rooms. Rounded windows and French windows that reach almost to the ground let light into the pavilion's interior. The ceiling is supported by sandstone columns in the shape of gilded palm trees. The pavilion was used for drinking tea and during the summer as dining hall. People from the area stood as models for the eating, tea-sipping and music-playing gilded sandstone figures in front of the pavilion The cupola crowning the roof is surmounted by a gilded Chinese figure with an open parasol.

In 1646 Princess Louise Henriëtte van Oranje-Nassau married with Friedrich Wilhelm I, Elector of Brandenburg. A few weeks after her move from Kleve to Berlin (1650) she visited a hunting lodge in Bötzow. She was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful surroundings and her husband decided to donate the lodge and the town to her. Princess Louise Henriëtte ordered the construction of a new palace at the site of the old hunting lodge, which was done by Dutch craftsmen. They were also helpful in the reconstruction of Bötzow, which was severely damaged during the Thirty Years' War. In 1652/1653 the new palace and the rebuilt city were both named Oranienburg. From 1689 on Louise’s son Elector Friedrich III ordered considerable extensions to the palace and gardens. With the addition of wings on the front and back of the main building Oranienburg Palace became an H-shaped plan. After the death of the Elector in 1713 the castle was no longer permanently inhabited. In 1794 it became the property of the later Prussian Queen Louise, who spent two years in a row her summer holidays in Oranienburg. The palace was sold in 1802 and served as a factory, seminary and - from 1933 to 1937 - as SS barracks. Between 1952 and 1990 it was used for housing the border troops of the GDR. After a major restoration Oranienburg Palace - Brandenburg’s oldest baroque palace - was reopened in 1999 and nowadays houses the town hall of Oranienburg and two museums.