2023-07-10 11:12:00
This quiet and secluded place is located less than two kilometers from the center of Potsdam on the shores of the “Maiden Lake” – Jungfernsee, if you get there directly by water. The local park, castle and church are among the Prussian UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Berlin and Brandenburg. The 10-kilometer journey by car will take half an hour – both from Potsdam and from the Spandau district of Berlin. Zakrov is halfway between them in the middle of a beech forest.
Quiet place
View of the lake from the parkPhoto: DW/Maksim Nelioubin
At the beginning of the last century, this secluded place on the Jungfernsee was chosen by representatives of the Berlin high society. Sometimes Zakrov is even compared with the American Hamptons – the area of the New York rich on Long Island.
From Lenne to GDR
Zakrovsky park in Potsdam. Painting by Max Liebermann circa 1923Photo: picture alliance/dpa/akg-images
The local park was founded by Peter Joseph Lenné in the middle of the 19th century. This is how it was portrayed by Max Liebermann in the 1920s, when there was a rapid construction of suburban villas in Zakrov. In the days of the GDR, it was possible to get here, to the border zone, only with a pass. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the villas quickly found new owners.
Berlin Wall
Light installation in 2016 in Zakrovsky ParkPhoto: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Settnik
In 1961-1989, the Belinsky Wall passed right through the park – exactly where this installation shows. A separate church bell tower was turned into an observation tower, and the temple was in no man’s land. Then about eight hectares of the park, about a third of its area, were cut down here, in particular, for the construction of a dog kennel and a training center for GDR border guards.
Temple on the borders
Zakrovsky Church and the Berlin Wall during the GDR Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Eventpress
In this picture, the temple is depicted at the time when the border passed here. The GDR authorities began building the Berlin Wall in August 1961, but regular services were held in the church until Christmas. Then the special services of the GDR committed an act of vandalism – they smashed the whole situation, after which they closed access to the building. The authorities feared escape across the lake to West Berlin.
Zakrovsky Castle
Zakrovsky CastlePhoto: DW/Maksim Nelioubin
After the reunification of Germany, the park and the church were restored. Zakrovsky Castle was also badly damaged. After renovation, it is now used for seasonal exhibitions. It was built in 1773 as a manor house on an estate first mentioned in the 14th century. Changed owners many times. After the purchase of land by the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV (Friedrich Wilhelm IV) in 1840, it was rebuilt in the style of a Baroque castle.
The king himself never stopped here. In the castle was the apartment of the parish priest. One of the early owners of the estate was the Berlin banker Johann Magnus. The composer Felix Mendelssohn, who visited him, is supposed to have composed part of his Second String Quartet in Zakrov. During the Weimar Republic, the castle was used by the Prussian finance minister.
Italian style
Zakrovsky Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the shore of the Jungfernsee lake in PotsdamPhoto: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Such a view of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Zakrov opens from the Glienik Bridge – the very one on which spies were changed during the Cold War. The temple was founded in 1841 by the will of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. He had long thought of building an Italianate-style church here in the form of an early Christian basilica. I chose a place on the shore so that from afar it would resemble a ship or a biblical ark.
Palaces and parks
Temple brickwork and decorative tiles Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Thus, this monarch wanted to close the ring – a kind of necklace of palaces and parks, created by several generations of Hohenzollerns on the banks of the lakes that the Havel River forms in these places near Berlin. These are the Marble Palace and the New Park, the palaces and parks of Babelsberg and Glienike, as well as the Peacock Island. A third of the estimate was spent on the foundation, or rather, on piles to strengthen the soil.
royal sketches
Western facade of the templePhoto: DW/Maksim Nelioubin
The first Christian communities adapted the halls of Roman markets and courts for temples. For the Prussian king, they served as an example of the unity of believers, and he wanted to create an architectural symbol in Potsdam, reminiscent of the origins of Christianity. The project, based on royal sketches, was developed by the court architect Ludwig Persius, one of the students of Karl Friedrich Schinkel. It took three years to build the temple.
Inside the church
Fresco in Zakrovsky ChurchPhoto: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Grimm
Outside, as seen in the previous photo, the building is framed by a covered colonnade, which gives this temple the appearance of a three-aisled basilica. The fresco in the apse depicting Christ the Savior surrounded by four apostles was completed in 1845. Having examined the temple from the inside, be sure to go to the church bell tower, built according to the example of Italian medieval towers – campaniles.
Pioneers
A memorial sign on the bell tower of the Zakrovsky ChurchPhoto: DW/Maksim Nelioubin
In 1897, the bell tower became the site of experiments, as a result of which, on August 27, the first successful radio transmission in German history took place here. It was received by a station located one and a half kilometers away on the opposite shore of the lake. This badge commemorates the German pioneers of radio communications, Adolf Slaby and Georg Graf von Arco, who worked on developing the ideas of Guglielmo Marconi.
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