Exterior view
by KNOBELSDORFF, Georg Wenceslaus von, Photo
Great Elector Frederick William acquired the town of Potsdam with several neighbouring villages 1n 1660, and he made Potsdam a second royal seat after Berlin. The first building works undertaken between 1664 and 1670 were for the Potsdam Stadtschloss, which was to replace a medieval castle and its buildings that protected a crossing of the river Havel. By 1680 it was completed by the collaboration of several architect. It was transformed in the 1690s, and after the accession of King Frederick II it was rebuilt by Georg Wenceslaus von Knobelsdorff.
The Stadtschloss was destroyed in the Second World War.