Potsdam
The most popular attraction in Potsdam is the Sanssouci Park, 2 km west of the city centre. In 1744 King Frederick the Great ordered the construction of a residence here, where he could live sans souci ("without worries”). The park hosts a botanical garden and many magnificent buildings.
The Old Market Square is Potsdam's historical city center. For three centuries this was the site of the City Palace (Stadtschloss), a royal palace built in 1662.
North of the Old Market Square is the oval French Church, erected in the 1750s by Boumann for the Huguenot community, and the Brandenburg Gate, built in 1770 (not to be confused with the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin).
Another landmark of Potsdam is the two-street Dutch Quarter, an ensemble of buildings that is unique in Europe, with about 150 houses built of red bricks in the Dutch style. Today, this area is one of Potsdam's most visited districts.
In the north of the city centre, there is the Russian colony of Alexandrowka, a small enclave of Russian architecture, including an Orthodox chapel which was built in 1825 for a group of Russian immigrants.
East of the Alexandrowka colony is a large park, the New Garden, which was laid out from 1786 in the English style. The site contains two palaces; one of them is the Cecilienhof and the other one is the Marmorpalais (Marble Palace). Nearby is the Biosphäre Potsdam, a tropical botanical garden.
There are many parks in Potsdam, most of them included in UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Spreewald (German for "Spree forest”) is situated 100 km south-east of Berlin and is designated as a biosphere reserve by the UNESCO. It is known for its traditional irrigation system which consists of more than 200 small channels within the 484-square-kilometre (187 sq mi) area. The landscape was shaped during the ice-age. In 1998 about 50,000 people lived in the biosphere reserve. Many of them are descendants of the first settlers in the Spreewald region. Until today, they have preserved their traditional language, customs and clothing.
People mostly depend on tourism and many tourists enjoy the exploration of the Spreewald. However, also agriculture, forestry and fishery are important sources of income. The principal town of the area is Lübbenau.
The Niederfinow boat lift is a popular tourist destination with about 500,000 visitors per year. It is the oldest working boat lift in Europe which was first opened in June 1914 on the Oder-Havel Canal, between Berlin and Stettin. The boat lift overcomes a difference of 36 meters by using a staircase lock with four chambers. The lift itself is about 60 m high, 94 m long and it takes approximately five minutes to move through the elevation difference.
Today the boat lift is too short for some barge trains which must be separated to pass the lift. The lift is running near to its capacity with about 11,000 boats passing through each year, so in 1997 the decision was made to build a new, bigger lift.
